I have been afraid of this for some time. The Dartmouth Schools are now indisputably under attack by right-wing fanatics. If you are a liberal or progressive who doesn't want to see the banning of books and diversity programs come to our schools — and better yet, you are the parent of children in the school system — now is the time to stand up for those pretty words on the sign sitting on your front lawn — and run for School Committee.
Now that we find ourselves in the George Santos era, it's worth knowing something about the increasing number of reprobates running for office. So here's my best attempt at a survey of the School Committee candidates.
The present Dartmouth School Committee consists of: conservative Chris Oliver; ultra-conservative and would-be book-banner John Nunes; liberals Mary Waite, Kathleen Amaral, and Shannon Jenkins. Amaral and Waite's seats are up for re-election this year. Mary Waite has not filed papers. So assuming Kathleeen Amaral keeps her seat, it is Mary Waite's now being challenged by Lynn Turner, Troy Tufano, and Erica Lyn Morency.
I wrote about Lynn Turner the last time she ran for the School Committee. Turner is an evangelical book-burner who wants to dismantle diversity programs. I looked into Turner’s background last year and reported on her campaign remarks at a candidate forum. She is a two-faced piece of work who literally quotes Martin Luther King as she tries to undermine everything he stood for. She is closely connected with the Dartmouth Republican Town Committee.
Joining her this year is Troy Tufano, a self-described political consultant who has dabbled in both Republican and Democratic politics, and now describes himself as a Libertarian. As late as 2012 Tufano was a liberal Christian and a Democrat. At some point around the 2016 Presidential election, judging from his abandoned Twitter account, Tufano’s religious and political views changed dramatically. Besides his bromances with domestic right-wingers like Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Ben Shapiro, Charlie Kirk, and prosperity gospel mega-preacher Joel Osteen, Tufano took an even darker turn, with his re-Tweeting of European neo-fascists like: Ragnar Gardarsson of the Danish Nye Borgerlige Party; and Marine Le Pen of the Rassemblement National Party. Tufano also retweeted conspiracy theories, such as the long-discredited accusation that the Clintons had deputy White House counsel Vince Foster killed. If Tufano's tweets should somehow disappear during the run-up to the town election, you can find a zipfile of screen shots here.
The third hat in the ring belongs to Erica Lynn Morency, who has not left such a disturbing trail of breadcrumbs but whose background (like everyone’s) deserves some scrutiny. Morency is a fitness consultant, a very successful marathoner, the mother of two Dartmouth school children, and is married to a Dartmouth police officer who is a part-time realtor and a registered Democrat. Morency herself is/was a registered member of the United Independent Party, which was founded in 2014 by Evan Falchuk and enjoyed a short lifespan before losing permanent ballot status in Massachusetts in 2016. The UIP’s platform appears to have been written by a Democrat. One of UIP’s celebrity members was former MA Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, who like Falchuk eventually returned to the Democratic Party. Despite its liberal-ish platform, the party was intended to be a home for conservative Democrats and Republicans who were turned off by the Tea Party.
I had an opportunity to talk to Ms. Morency, who was wary about discussing her policies, especially with me. Nevertheless, we had a long conversation in which I offered her my own experiences and reasons for asking the questions I did, and she was somewhat forthcoming. Expressing some concern for the salaries of teaching assistants, Morency does not sound entirely like the strident culture warrior, acknowledging that she will have to come up to speed on a variety of budget and contractual issues. I broached my concerns of the creeping censorship of teachers and the banning of books but was not entirely reassured with her answers. For instance, Morency was comfortable with banning books on police abuse and with banning “pornographic” library books. She is also uncomfortable with teachers discussing “inappropriate” sexual health and sexuality issues with students. If she does join the book- and curriculum-banners, Morency is going to have to be very clear what “inappropriate” and “pornographic” mean. She said that she and her family don’t see color in their human relationships and that she questions the need for diversity and equity groups. I pushed back, giving her an example of at least one Dartmouth student who would benefit from a little more diversity and equity. Given her hesitations, I didn’t want to push Ms. Morency too much but I do think that from now until the election she will have to separate her views significantly and unequivocally from, say, those of Lynn Turner, Troy Tufano and Joe Pires in Rochester if she wants my vote. Morency told me she would have a website up shortly, is scheduled to be interviewed by Dartmouth Week, and will participate in a candidate debate. So we shall see…
Dartmouth's Town elections are only two months away. This year the town election is April 4th. I hope that kind and decent people will step up. Candidates need to pick up filing papers at Town Hall no later than February 10th, collect 50 signatures (double or triple that in case of challenges), and submit the paperwork to the Town Clerk by February 14th.
Especially if you are the parent of children in the Dartmouth Schools, now is the time to step up. That sign on your lawn is nice and all, but British social philosopher and Liberal John Stuart Mill said it best: "Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing."