No sooner had Maine’s government-run K-12 indoctrination camps re-convened after their summer break, when board members for one of the state’s most dysfunctional school districts stepped into the manure pile with both feet.
And it wasn’t just board members who got messed up — even the woke superintendent is up to her ankles in cow patties.
Let me introduce the cast of characters from MSAD 11, which includes Gardiner, West Gardiner, Randolph, and Pittston.
First up is the board chair, Becky Fles of Gardiner.
Last April, Becky took it upon herself to grill newly-elected board member Sean Focht about a mailer Maine First Project sent to voters, endorsing Sean and hammering the district for keeping secrets from parents about “gender transitioning” at school.
Becky accused Sean of being “bought and paid for” by Maine First Project, and informed him that once he was elected, he no longer represented the voters but the students. She added that “politics aren’t really allowed” at the school district level.
Who knew? Certainly not the teachers’ union bosses.
Just so you know, Sean Focht and my good friend Jeff Hanley are the only two conservatives on the 12-member MSAD 11 school board. Outnumbered 10 to 2, they are routinely disrespected by the delusional majority that can’t tell the difference between a girl and a boy.
Fast forward from April to September and meet board member Matthew Lillibridge of West Gardiner:
At the September 5th school board meeting, during a discussion of the district’s transgender policy, Lillibridge claimed that several of the people who opposed the policy quoted the conservative non-profit Parents Rights in Education in their comments. Lillibridge went on to say that the Southern Poverty Law Center classifies PRE as a hate group. Watch and listen at minute 58:20.
There’s only one small problem with this accusation — aside from the fact that the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) itself is a discredited, scandal-plagued, left-wing extremist hate group.
The problem for Lillibridge is that SPLC did not and has not classified PRE as a hate group.
In response to Lillibridge’s scurrilous accusation, the director of the Maine chapter of PRE sent a cease-and-desist letter to the MSAD 11 board, demanding a retraction of the defamatory accusation. The school board hastily scheduled a “special meeting” for September 17th to confer with legal counsel.
Enter now the Swamp Queen, superintendent Patricia Hopkins:
On September 13th, Hopkins emailed board member Sean Focht to request that he recuse himself from the Special Board meeting and executive session scheduled for Tuesday, September 17th, to discuss PRE’s cease-and-desist letter. Hopkins alleged that Sean has a potential conflict of interest and should recuse himself because…are you ready?… he’s a member of PRE.
But Sean is not and never has been a member of PRE.
Much to the chagrin of superintendent Hopkins, Sean showed up for the executive session last week, which was also attended by not just one but two trial lawyers from the Portland-based Drummond Woodsum law firm. But the board never got around to making a decision on how to proceed. Instead, for three-quarters of an hour, they took turns browbeating and insulting Sean. One of them even referred to Sean as “nasty” and “icky.”
Is this beginning to sound like a hostile work environment for Sean?
Would teachers permit this sort of bullying in the classroom or on the playground?
My purpose in conveying this sordid tale of buffoonery and incompetence is not just to remind you of how much work we have to do. There’s no doubt we have a long march ahead of us. But consider this.
The transgender supremacists have a 10 to 2 supermajority on the MSAD 11 school board, yet they’re borderline hysterical at the prospect of any dissent from their radical agenda.
Frankly, I regard the hysteria as a sign of weakness. The gender-bender ideologues know they can’t defend this madness in an open public forum. They know they live in a house of cards that’s on the verge of collapse across the state.
With November 5th right around the corner, Maine First Project supporters are involved in a dozen or more school board campaigns in multiple Maine school districts.
And when the calendar turns over to a new year in a few months, hundreds of seats statewide will be up for grabs between January and December of 2025 — including one in West Gardiner in March!
Together, with patience and persistence, we will reclaim our public institutions from the malevolent Marxist tyrants who dominate state government, academia, the K-12 swamp, and the very Fake News media.
Can I get an “Amen” to that?
Best Regards,
Hon. Lawrence Lockman
Maine House of Representatives, 2012-2020
Co-founder & President
Maine First Project
PS. My good friend and fellow former legislator Jeff Hanley of Pittston did an outstanding job sparring with the lunatics at the September 5th school board meeting in Gardiner.
It’s definitely worth watching! Check it out from minute 33 to minute 41.