LGBTQ Culture Wars Hit Southington School Board Over Video

SOUTHINGTON, CT — June is Pride Month worldwide, but a local commemoration of the LGTBQ celebration at one middle school has riled up some parents in Southington.

Prior to the end of school, Kennedy Middle School showed students a video on Pride Month in homeroom, which angered some parents.

Others parents, though, wondered what the fuss was about.

That division was clear at the Southington Board of Education's last meeting June 8 when parents spoke about the topic of the video during public communications.

While some expressed outrage, others expressed support.

School board members did not have the issue on the agenda and, as such, did not comment or vote on any aspect of the Pride Month video.

But they did listen to impassioned testimony from parents on both sides of the issue.

Angry opposition

Parent Michael Kryzanski of Hitching Post Drive blasted the school's decision to allow the video to be played in homeroom prior to Pride Month.

He said many parents were just as outraged as he was, but fearful of speaking out due to fears of retribution.

"It seems like some teachers are taking the opportunity to push any agenda they want without parents knowing or having a say as evidenced by this Pride Month video being shown at Kennedy Middle School," Kryzanski said.

"Why is Pride Month only focused on sexuality and not a person's accomplishments?"

He questioned why there was Pride Month when a holiday to support fallen war veterans was only one day, Memorial Day.

Kryzanski also questioned why other groups were not being supported.

"If we're taking away a month to celebrate various groups' sexualities, then why are we not taking out other months to celebrate other groups?" he said.

"There are kids bullied in schools for all types of reasons, so why are we catering to one group. If I was being bullied for other reasons, I would think I was less important because of the lack of attention."

Susan Zabohonski of Werking Street agreed with Kryzanski, adding showing a video on Pride Month was disrespectful to Christian pupils whose faith may oppose people being LGBTQ.

"However, with diversity, equity and inclusion, there should also be diversity of religion and faith and inclusion for people who have different opinions on sexuality," Zabohonski said.

"I just don't think we should be teaching children about sexual orientation or celebrating any sort of sexual orientation, whether it be gays, straight, homosexual."

Zabohonski, too, claimed many parents were in agreement with her and Kryzanski, but were afraid to speak up.

She said she had no problem with pupils learning about Pride Day and the "bullying that supposedly occurs in the LGBTQ community."

"But to tell the students as part of that video that they have to actively do something to support a community that their faith may not tell them that they should support, that's not inclusion. That's not diversity."

Pride Month Support

Other parents speaking, however, contradicted those two, claiming the video was not sexual in nature but, rather, an exercise in promoting diversity and inclusion.

"I don't have a problem with notifying parents of the curriculum that is being taught in schools," said Katie Wade of Madelyn Lane. "But we want an inclusive community. We don't want bullying. We want our kids to learn about these things.

"If you watched the video, they weren't teaching about sexuality. They were teaching about Pride Month. It was benign," Wade said.

"I just feel like this is sort of a manufactured problem, which seems to be an ongoing problem for the Town of Southington where we find problems that don't really exist."

Effie Moutogiannis of Rustic Oak Drive called the debate another example of the "theatrics" that she's seen in Southington recently.

"I'm not buying into this dystopian everything-socially-is-going-down-the-tubes type of stuff. I believe in our town. I believe in our students and I believe in our teachers," she said.

Moutogiannis said teaching children these days is more than just teaching the basics like the so-called "three R's."

"It's not that anymore. Sorry. There's a lot more to deal with in this world. And we need to make the students ready to go out there in this world," she said.

Added Annie Wellington of Vernondale Drive, a Hartford school official and graduate of Southington High School, on her district's commitment to inclusion.

"That's a beautiful thing," she said of Hartford's policies on diversity in schools. "We don't do that in Southington and that's hard to swallow."

For the minutes of the June 8 Southington Board of Education meeting, click on this link.