The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
GOP campaign manager: Comments taken out of context
Beeman says her statement on effect of helping children of color was ‘poorly worded’
GUILFORD — The campaign manager for the town’s Republican slate of Board of Education candidates says comments she made about how “helping kids of color” has a negative impact on white children were taken out of context during a University of Connecticut education forum.
Mary Beeman, the campaign manager for the group Parents for Guilford Students, made the comments last week during the UConn virtual forum on race in education.
In the forum’s chat, Beeman commented, “helping kids of color to feel they belong has a negative effect on white, Christian, or conservative kids.”
Beeman’s slate of GOP candidates has sparked an ongoing debate on how race is taught in Guilford schools. The candidates, who could not be reached for comment about Beeman’s remarks, have claimed critical race theory is being taught in the town’s schools. CRT is a controversial academic framework through which to view systems of racism and oppression in America.
However, Guilford Public Schools’ Superintendent Paul Freeman and other officials have said critical race theory is not being taught in town.
Beeman could not be reached for comment Thursday, but in a statement posted on Facebook, she said her remarks during the forum were “poorly worded and shown out of context.”
In her statement posted on the Facebook group, Not So Simply Guilford, Beeman said her comment was in response to a statement Freeman made during the webinar about the importance of children of color fitting in.
“Guilford students who may have staunch Judeo-Christian values — or sim
ply are conservative thinkers — have been bullied into submission by their teachers and fellow students with left-leaning ideologies,” Beeman, a former Guilford Board of Education member, wrote in her statement. “Not only is diversity of thought being stifled, students are being victimized socially and emotionally because they have a different perspective.”
Beeman concluded by stating that all children, regardless of race, religion, culture or sexual orientation, need to be treated with kindness and respect and taught to treat others that way.
Beeman’s statement came after Chris Moore posted in the Facebook group a screenshot of her comments, which he said was sent to him. “I actually reached out to her to see if it was true she had said this because I had a hard time believing it and her response was that if it became part of public discourse it would ‘prove her right,’” Moore wrote on Facebook and reiterated in an interview Thursday with Hearst Connecticut Media.
Protect Guilford Schools, a slate of two Democrats and three Independents running against Beeman’s candidates, released a statement about the comments, standing against racism and prejudice.
Democratic Board of Education incumbent Moira Rader said in a press release that there’s no room for interpretation of Beeman’s comment.
“In her comment, Ms. Beeman seeks to lump kids into two groups, white and non-white,” Rader said in the release. “She has called on our public schools to abandon efforts towards diversity, equity and inclusion. Our board has devoted much time and energy towards successfully prioritizing the social and emotional wellbeing of every student. Such racist outlooks would dismantle this important progress.”
The ACLU of Connecticut shared resources for those impacted by Beeman’s comment, including the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities and Dignity in Schools, a national coalition that aims to empower families and educators to fight racism and oppression in schools.
“It’s reprehensible that someone seeking to influence public education shows such a fundamental lack of interest in the wellbeing of children of color, and such a severe underestimation of other children’s capacities to learn from and with their classmates,” said Dan Barrett, the legal director of the ACLU of Connecticut.
Barrett also said the government has a responsibility to create a safe, inclusive learning environment for all children in public schools, including all students of color.