Parents, Others Upset Over Lewd, Creepy Tweets By Crossdressing Concord Art Teacher

CONCORD, NH — A complaint about a crossdressing elementary school art teacher, fears of violence due to past criminal incidents by a parent, a court hearing on Friday, and a restraining order that was later dropped boiled over at a meeting at the SAU 8 Concord School District central office on Friday.

Around 9:30 a.m., Concord police were sent to Liberty Street after staff for the school district pressed a panic alert button. The staff alerted police after half a dozen parents and activists showed up, without an appointment, to meet with officials about complaints concerning the elementary school teacher and creepy, lewd comments he previously made on Twitter in 2017.

Michael Guglielmo, whose daughter attends the Christa McAuliffe Elementary School, has filed complaints about Silas Allard, an art teacher who has been known to wear colorful clothing but also women’s dresses to school and in the classroom. Guglielmo appeared at a recent school board to complain after speaking with officials previously about the lack of dress code in the district and mixed signals being sent to his daughter and other children, having a 6 foot, 260-pound man, with a beard, wearing a dress, he said. No action, however, had been taken on the matter.

Guglielmo and others, while researching the teacher, found comments on Twitter from about five years ago that appear to joke about targeting boys for sex, using sex toys as costume supplies, and other inappropriate comments and pictures.

Allard shared a screenshot of a man with a boy on his lap with the words, which appeared to be an IM message, and he wrote, “Picking up boys 101,” with two key symbols. In the body of the IM text, “I used to have a lizard that had the same name as you,” was written, almost as if to joke about a pickup line targeting a boy on social media.

Another message described what appeared to be an interaction with a parent on a flight:

“Baby talking to me on plane-‘Daddy?’

Mom-‘Sorry she calls every man she sees Daddy.’

Me-‘Your daughter and I have a lot in common.’

Mom-turns away and tightens grip on the child”

Another included a picture of Fred from “Scooby-Doo” with the words, “It’s trapping time,” and the comment, “When u out of condoms but he’s drunk enough to risk it.”

Another Tweet asked: “What 3 attributes would you use to describe yourself? 1. evil 2. diabolical 3. lemon scented”

Another one stated:

“Kid-‘Is this your mom?’

That’s half an avocado”

There were also photos of marijuana, whether Amazon would start delivering marijuana, and comments about being stoned.

This week, Allard filed a restraining order against Guglielmo, which led to him being barred from dropping off his daughter at school.

In the complaint, the teacher accused him of “saying homophobic things about me” and “demanding I change my attire.” Allard said Guglielmo gave him “threatening looks” and would “get in my personal space.” He claimed, after requesting to take a picture of him, Guglielmo said, “pose for me baby,” and “other incredibly aggressive words (and) general demeanor.” Since he had been in prison before and was known as dangerous and unhinged, Allard said, he felt he needed the protection order.

Guglielmo and Allard were to have a hearing on the matter Friday in Concord District Court. When Guglielmo arrived, he found out the restraining order had been dropped. He and others then went to the school district office to speak to officials about the matter.

Kathleen Murphy, the school superintendent, who was attending another meeting, headed back to the central office and met with the parents and activists, including recent Executive Council candidate Teresa Grinnell, concerning the Tweets and other issues.

During the conversation, which was often heated, with Guglielmo being animated, something he blamed on his Italian and Irish heritage, and Murphy speaking quietly, he said Allard agreed to pose for the picture he took of him to show him wearing feminine clothing. But he claimed to be taunted by the teacher as if to get a rise out of him and see if he would turn violent while dropping his daughter off.

Grinnell and others, who mostly lived outside of Concord, said they were shocked Allard would be allowed to be a teacher of very young children while making sickening and inappropriate comments online. One of the parents asked if Allard’s social media account was eyed before he was hired, and Murphy said it was not. Murphy countered the comments were made five years ago.

Grinnell and Guglielmo agreed if the teacher were in middle or high school, the dress issue would not be as important, since the age of those students was more receptive to alternative lifestyles than young children. He also said he was shocked he would be targeted for a restraining order for complaining about the teacher’s clothing and concerns about his social media posts. Guglielmo is a felon due to a late-1980s conviction after a shootout with police in Manchester in December 1985. He served nearly two decades in prison.

Since then, Guglielmo has given a Ted Talk, led a bone marrow drive effort before and after his son died, and started several businesses, including real estate and cabinetry.

Murphy said it was her understanding the restraining order was dropped. But she said neither she nor the district was involved in the restraining order.

Guglielmo, who previously lived in Belmont, said he was proud to have his daughter attending the school since it was named after an important educator who gave her life to teach children from space — but McAuliffe would be stunned to see men with beards being allowed to teach in a dress, he thought.

After about 30 minutes and explaining his side, accusing Allard of taunting him, the meeting began to devolve — with Grinnell suggesting they leave since she did not believe Murphy was taking the allegations seriously and was making the issue about Guglielmo and his animations and not about the teacher’s actions.

As they left, Guglielmo threatened to sue the district.

Outside, when asked about possible resolutions to the matter, Guglielmo said he would talk to his daughter about it. He said she liked being in school and even liked Allard. But she was confused about why he was dressing as a woman some days and a man other days. Both he and Grinnell reiterated concerns about the lack of a dress code for teachers with younger students and the sickening sexual social media posts.

Police stayed at the scene until Guglielmo and the others left the grounds.

Later on Friday, Murphy said she could not speak about anything connected to the teacher since it was a personnel issue.

When asked, she said she had not dealt with a dress code issue while superintendent. There was no policy currently with the district on what educators should wear — although there are some safety issues, including students' inability to wear flip-flops. Some clothing, obviously, was not appropriate for teachers to be wearing. But, Murphy added, it might need to be looked at.

“That is a discussion I would like to bring up with the policy committee,” she said. “This is one of those issues that has become a social issue.”

Murphy said everyone was trying to come to some resolution about what is the correct direction. She was not surprised because there are a lot of school districts dealing with social and gender issues and other topics. Murphy said, as superintendent, officials try to find ways to come to agreements and resolve problems and that is what she would be doing moving forward.

“Somewhere where it appeases all parties,” she said. “But there is never a solution everybody agrees to. It’s a tough call.”

Murphy said people needed to come together, and while Guglielmo was angry, “I wasn’t trying to cause more problems … I was trying to get him to talk about it.” She knew Guglielmo’s previous history but added she had dealt with students during her entire career who made mistakes.

“We’re not perfect; we’re not a perfect person; I get it,” she said. “I’m not trying to use that against him. But people are afraid of him (due to his past).”

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