Controversial Sex Ed Assignment, Masks Dominate Enfield Meeting

ENFIELD, CT — A packed house of Enfield parents and residents jammed into a Board of Education meeting in the Council Chambers at town hall Tuesday night to make their voices heard regarding the current mask mandate in schools, as well as a controversial assignment in an eighth-grade sex education class involving pizza as a metaphor.

Superintendent of Schools Chriz Drezek went to great lengths to clarify an announcement late Tuesday afternoon by Gov. Ned Lamont concerning the possibility of ending the school mask mandate at the end of this month. He noted the governor's executive powers end Feb. 15, and only passage of a bill by the state legislature could force local school districts to continue requiring schoolchildren wear masks.

He also addressed the pizza assignment, saying it had been inadvertently sent to students.

"The simple truth is it was a mistake," he said. "I know there are some who may not believe that, I know there are some who don't necessarily want that answer, but this is a longtime great staff member. There was no hidden agenda, there was no secret cabal to indoctrinate kids on something. They sent the wrong document. None of us are happy that it happened, and no one feels worse than the person that did it. I owe it to that person to stand up here and tell them, I've got your back on this one. I'm moving on, for them and for the 5,000 kids we've got to worry about."

Following Drezek's explanation, a public communication session lasting 75 minutes took place. Several parents dismissed the superintendent's comments, while most ended their remarks with the slogan, "Unmask our kids."

A brief disturbance took place when a woman brought several pizza boxes to the desk from where the public addresses the board. A recess was called by board chair Tina LeBlanc, and the woman was escorted from the chamber.

Board member John Unghire proposed formation of a special bipartisan committee to look into the pizza assignment situation. He called it a "parental task force," which would be comprised of parents, board members as liaisons, the assistant superintendent and the curriculum and policy directors.

"We need to get to the root cause, find out how this is happening and what we can do to prevent it from happening again," Unghire said.

The full meeting may be viewed here.