The treatment Erica Faginski-Stark was subjected to by the Hampshire Regional and Easthampton school districts is disturbing. The “controversial” Facebook post that sunk her two candidacies was about fairness in girls sports. Science confirms that biological males, despite their identities, have unfair advantages over females. Faginski-Stark’s support for girls should be a positive attribute for an educator, indicating compassion for a female population who are still oppressed in many ways. But today, for many in the progressive movement, to support the right’s of women and girls, is to be “transphobic.” And to be called “transphobic” is the new “communist” of the McCarthy era. And like that era, freedom of speech and belief is under attack, but this time, from the left.

Faginski-Stark had every right to express her beliefs, and to not be canceled for them, or feel she had to “apologize.” For these are reasonable, compassionate beliefs which many of us agree with. She is being kept from employment advancement. The losers are our children, as a supremely qualified woman, recommended by the schools superintendent, has been rejected by adherents to a “gender identity” ideology based on feelings, not science, and, in my opinion, one that is doing harm to our children’s mental and physical health.

Where is the open debate on these issues so crucial to our children? And why are so many who disagree with “gender ideology” afraid to speak up? Perhaps the disgraceful bullying that Faginski-Stark has endured, gives us a clue. As a former school committee member, and politically on the left, I am worried about our schools.

Karen Bercovici

Leeds

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