Editor note: The content you're going to read about below may be incredibly offensive and disturbing to some readers - and is available for little children in the Granby, CT school district.
GRANBY, CT - The saga of the sleepy small town of Granby, Connecticut, continues. Earlier in October, Law Enforcement Today (LET) told our readers about the leftist school superintendent of this town located about ten or so miles northwest of the capital city of Hartford.
Superintendent Cheri Burke came to Granby after leaving her mark on another suburban Hartford school system, Glastonbury, in a departure that was widely and openly celebrated on Glastonbury community forums.
As we reported, one of Burke’s “crowning achievements” in Glastonbury was overseeing the district’s Equity, Diversion, and Inclusion program, known in most conservative circles as CRT or Critical Race Theory.
Now, any program that encourages diversity is a worthy goal. However, frequently, that diversity stops at areas such as race and sexual orientation…diversity of thought or opinion is frowned upon…significantly, especially where it concerns sexual orientation or gender ideology.
As our previous piece noted, LET was notified by a parent who attended an open house at their child’s school where he witnessed a teacher wearing a pin that read, “Someone I love is LGBT.”
That came as a surprise to the parent since teachers are supposed to remain apolitical in their official capacity as educators, nor are they to share personal views concerning social or political issues.
One can imagine, we mused, if school staff showed up wearing a pro-Second Amendment, pro-life, or…God forbid…a MAGA pin.
Thus began a saga of emails exchanged initially between a parent and Ms. Burke and finally between the owner of LET…a Granby resident with school-age children.
The excuse offered by Ms. Burke for the teacher’s choice of accessories was that the teacher’s contract “doesn’t specify dress code requirements.” She then directed Reyes to contact the school’s principal. In other words, she punted.
We won’t repeat what took place in the number of email exchanges that took place between Reyes and Burke. However, the short story is she pulled out the “we’re going to refer this to our attorney” card.
Burke stopped responding to Reyes’ emails and deferred to the Board of Education’s attorney, Thomas Mooney, of the well-known Hartford law firm of Shipman & Goodwin.
It is not typical for school superintendents, who are town employees, to punt simple questions or, for that matter, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to attorneys. That is a massively expensive way to handle what are typically routine requests typically handled by the highly-paid superintendent.
Unless you are afraid you may be treading on shaky legal ground. What else is one to think?
One of the FOIA requests made by Reyes involved several book titles and whether they were available in Granby Public School libraries. The request was as follows:
“Under the Freedom of Information Act, I’m hereby requesting information about whether or not the following books are in any Granby school libraries.
“I’m also requesting information about whether these books are available digitally through the school, available to be brought into the school through any partnerships or affiliations, and whether or not at any point they HAVE or WILL BE available, according to any plans or conversations.
“Relevant records should please be extended to any conversations pertaining to these titles in any emails or electronic or other communications–including any inclusion or exclusion in the school curriculum or extracurricular activities.”
In response, Mooney wrote the following:
“In response to this request, please be advised of the following:
“The records that are responsive to your request are found in the library databases, which are available on the school district website. One can go to the school home page and then click on the Library Media page to enter the book title into the search.
“Using this methodology, one will see:
“Of the eleven books on the list you submitted, six are not in any of the school library collections. One book is available in both the middle school and high school collections:
- Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, by Jesse Andrews.
“Two books are available as e-books only in the high school online collection:
- All Boys Aren’t Blue by George Johnson and Beyond Magenta by Susan Kuklin
“Two books are available in the high school collection:
“There are no emails or other records regarding the book titles you attached to your request.”
What became even more egregious and which leads one to believe the Granby Public Schools are trying to hide something is an email Reyes received on Oct 26 from Mr. Mooney. The email reads as follows, in part:
“As noted below, Superintendent Burke and I have offered to meet with you to discuss your questions, and that offer remains open.
“I will not be responding in writing to your various questions. However, I believe your concerns relate largely to the curriculum and instructional materials and to the free speech rights of teachers and other employees. As a courtesy, I attach the relevant sections on these topics from A Practical Guide to Connecticut School Law (Tenth Edition 2023), which is published by the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education.”
(Note: At the last minute, Burke previously blew off a meeting with Reyes, saying she was refusing to meet with him. This offer from the attorney for a "meeting" only came after they refused to put the promised responses in writing, and local media was copied in the FOIA requests by Reyes.)
The email then delved into volumes of legal mumbo jumbo, state statutes, case law, etc.
Yet another email, sent the same date from Mooney to Reyes, said the following:
“I attach a document responsive to your FOIA request, which was shared with parents on Curriculum Night. To elaborate, the Board of Education approves textbooks. All other materials are utilized at the professional discretion of the certified staff who facilitate the learning.
“As an example, the library media specialist will consult professional resources and reviews and determine what is age-appropriate for the school library. On slide 5, you will see Common Sense Media, Ed Reports, and School Library Journal mentioned as examples of the many professional resources certified staff use to make these decisions.”
Reyes replied as follows:
“To be clear, the official position of the school is that “age appropriate” material is describing in graphic detail anal sex between two underage boys?”
Here are a few excerpts of Granby’s “age-appropriate” books in their school libraries:
From Lawn Boy:
“...in fourth grade, at a church youth group meeting, out in the bushes behind the parsonage, I touched Doug Goble’s dick, and he touched mine. In fact, there were even some mouths involved.”
“He talked about old times at the church but never mentioned our penises or the fact that he never said ten words to me after our little foray in the bushes. He talked about a few of his new listings and his plans to expand his real estate empire into Jefferson County but made not a single reference to holding or sugging or sucking dicks.”
From Beyond Magenta- Transgender Teens Speak Out (told by a male):
“I was sexually mature. What I mean about sexually mature is that I knew about sex. From six up, I used to kiss other guys in my neighborhood, make out with them, and perform oral sex on them. I liked it. I used to love oral. And I touched their you-know-whats.”
“Then one day, when I was with my mother or grandmother–I don’t remember–I said, ‘I want to have my dick cut off because I want to be a girl.”
From Blankets:
Pornographic drawings of sex organs and sex acts
From All Boys Aren’t Blue:
“He reached his hand down and pulled out my dick. He quickly went to giving me head. I just sat back and enjoyed it, as I could tell he was too. He was also definitely experienced in what he was doing because he went to work quite confidently…”
“...So I slowed down and took my time and luckily got into a good rhythm. He didn’t know I was a virgin, and I did my best to act dominant like my favorite porn star. I was an actor, and this was my movie.”
So, you get the point. The leadership of the Granby Public Schools apparently doesn’t want to address matters such as LGBT-supporting pins because the school district tacitly (or not) endorses the ideology espoused by it. The fact people have to run through legal hoops to get information that should be readily and easily accessible speaks volumes.
Do you want to know why parent advocacy groups such as Moms for Liberty are so strong and getting stronger? It is to fight back against the madness that our public schools…once a safe and nurturing place for children…have resorted to.
The attorney and the superintendent have since refused to respond to all emails from Reyes, including requests for clarification on FOIA emails.
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