Selectman calls anonymous letter ‘vile’ with a ‘racially charged innuendo’
NEW CANAAN — Selectman Kathleen Corbet said Tuesday that she found the anonymous letter that was left on stoops around town “offensive.” She was the only member to comment on it during the Board of Selectman meeting, as First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectman Nick Williams did not expound on her sentiments.
The letter primarily targets two women of color who are Democratic Board of Education candidates, Fatou Niang, a Black woman who started Stand Together Against Racism, and Janet Leung Fonss, who is of Chinese descent.
“I find it offensive,” Corbet said of the letter she thought “everybody” has seen. “It is completely vile and inappropriate in our town” with “too much racially charged innuendo there.”
The school board is one of only two contested town races on Election Day, Nov. 2, with nine candidates running for six seats of the nine-person board. “We will be glad when election time is over,” Corbet, who is running unopposed for selectman, said. “It is a tough time” and “I wish everybody well.”
After Niang saw the letter last week, she told Hearst on Thursday that: “I am sad, hurt and, frankly, angry that yesterday, under the veil of anonymity and the cover of night, ‘concerned parents’ dropped racist letters about me and what I stand for on doorsteps across town.”
Niang has said she hopes to help the school board achieve the diversity, equity and inclusion goals and create an environment where all students are not only welcome, “but belong.”
The writers, who referred to themselves as “very concerned parents,” wrote that “while we agree our children should learn about slavery, Jim Crow and segregation, the Democratic candidates want to take things too far.”
The writers claimed that Niang said she “hopes to see 25 percent of faculty of color employed in academic disciplines by 2025.” The letter states that, in order to achieve this goal, 89 of the current 417 white teachers “in our schools would need to be replaced with non-white teachers.”
“I never said that,” Niang said. “That is in the letter the alumni group sent to the school way before they got involved with S.T.A.R. and they never asked for any teacher to be fired or replaced with a teacher of color. They would like the administration to cast a wider net when recruiting for the teachers’ positions.”
Police Chief Krolikowski told Hearst that he had not yet seen the letter and “I would need to review to see if it requires police involvement.” Hearst has since sent him a copy of the letter.
The letter is “unfortunately” anonymous, Corbet said.
The letters have been distributed around the South School district, according to Alyssa MacKenzie
and other sources. MacKenzie said people in that area have been asked by fellow concerned citizens if anyone was seen on home surveillance video dropping the letters off. No one has come forward with evidence yet.
Fonss was upset by the letter that targets her support of S.T.A.R. and Niang.
“To be singled out as someone to be feared — someone dangerous — is to label me an outsider who does not belong, and reading those words brought back the childhood trauma of being called racial slurs by hateful people who inexplicably felt threatened by my very existence,” she said.
“We have to question why anyone might be against ensuring all families feel like they belong,” Democratic Town Committee Chair Lisa Hannich said in a statement from the group, which denounced the letters Thursday.
Hearst has reached out to Chairman of the Republican Town Committee Patrick Donovan for a comment.
This is not the first time during this election season that concerns regarding race have been raised. Queries were made when the Republican caucus ousted the Chairman Katrina Parkhill and Secretary Jennifer Richardson, during a pre-caucus debate there was mention of the critical race theory and recently when the board removed cultural humility from its goals.
Last August, students and alumni, including Broadway star Jelani Alladin, told the board they felt the district did not adequately incorporate teachings on race. The students argued the history curriculum was incomplete and the district needed a more diverse staff. They argued they felt having mostly white teachers shortchanged their education when they entered a diverse workforce.