Mohonasen school board member called on to resign

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ROTTERDAM — Mohonasen school board member Chad McFarland, who earlier this month referenced a pedophilia organization when raising concerns about the name of an LGBTQ group at Draper Middle School, faced calls to resign on Monday during a meeting where several of his colleagues sought to distance themselves from his comments.

Dozens of community members packed the Mohonasen Central School District’s Center for Advanced Technology building, where they sat through a three-hour public comment period that saw a majority of speakers, including students, parents and faculty members, condemn McFarland for remarks he made during the Board of Education’s March 13 meeting, with several calling on him to publicly apologize and step down from his position.

“Resign now. Your bigoted tropes have no place on our board,” said Bill Sherman, a Mohonasen track coach with several children in the district.

McFarland has faced criticism in recent weeks after he referenced the North American Man/Boy Love Association — a pedophilia advocacy group — while raising concerns about the name of the Genders and Sexualities Alliance, an LGBTQ club at Draper Middle School.

The club, which was approved by the Board of Education earlier this academic year, is a national organization formerly known as the Gay Straight Alliance. The organization, which has long had a presence in public schools, changed its name in 2015 to be more inclusive.

McFarland has said he was addressing concerns about the word “sexualities” brought to him by parents and trying to prove the district would never approve a group that would sexualize underage children.

“I don’t mean to shock our conscience here, but I just came up with a couple of instances to make the point that it’s not all or nothing,” McFarland said during the March 13 meeting. “So the NAMBLA, which is the North American Man/Boy Love Association — that exists — if some students came and said ‘We want to have the NAMBLA Understanding Club.’ Well?”

He went on to reference a pole-dancing club as a way to further his point.

Several in attendance, including member’s of McFarland’s family, said his remarks were taken out of context and that people were being too quick to judge without fully understanding the situation.

But others said McFarland knew exactly what he was doing when he made his remarks.

Several in attendance Monday said McFarland’s remarks were harmful and drew dangerous comparisons to LGBTQ individuals and sex criminals at a time when LGBTQ people face increased discrimination and are at heightened risk for self-harm and suicide.

Nathaniel Gray, executive director the Pride Center of the Capital Region, an Albany-based group that provides support for LGBTQ individuals, shared statistics demonstrating the increased risk for suicide and bullying LGBTQ youth face, and detailed his own journey of growing up gay.

“We live in a culture that makes me want to kill myself,” Gray said.

A 2022 study by The Trevor Project, a national non-profit group focused on youth LGBTQ suicide prevention, found that 45% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered suicide in the past year, and that 1 in 5 transgender and nonbinary youth have attempted to take their own life during that same period. The study also found that 60% of LGBTQ youth have requested mental health care in the past year but were unable to obtain it.

The study was released at a time when legislation has been introduced in state houses across the country aimed at restricting healthcare for transgender youth and banning curriculum teaching about LGBTQ people.

A total of 434 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced throughout the U.S. in 2023, including states like Florida, Texas and Virginia, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

Gray went on to say that McFarland took the word sexualities out of context and conflated the definition with something perverse rather than the intended meaning.

“If you don’t understand the word sexuality, you’re not smart enough to be on this board,” Gray said.

Mohonasen students also spoke out against McFarland, with several detailing their struggles of growing up gay and having to deal with bullying that they said was rampant throughout the district.

Lizzie Lewis, a sophomore at Mohonasen High School, said McFarland’s remarks have made students feel unsafe before detailing her own experiences in the district growing up gay, in which other students used gay slurs and bullied her while riding the bus.

“I’ve been scared to go home because they know where I live,” Lewis said.

At one point, board member Ericka Montagino made a motion for the board to go into executive session during the comment period for the purposes of “board development.” The motion failed.

Montagino later said she wasn’t trying to end the public comment period, but wanted to get a better sense of the board’s rules for commenting since members of the public were referring to a sitting board member by name.

“What I wanted to go into executive session for was to have a better understanding of the rules of allowing the public to speak, and speak negatively about one of us,” she said.

McFarland said after the meeting that he never meant to cause any harm with his comments and was only addressing concerns brought to him by parents, something he said he has done repeatedly since he was elected in 2015.

“I took to heart everything that everybody said,” he said. “I listened intently to every single person. Nothing fell on deaf ears.”

Asked if he planned to publicly apologize or resign from his position, McFarland declined to comment.

Several board members sought to distance themselves from McFarland’s remarks, however, including Melissa Laudano and Julie Power, who both made statements following the public comment period saying that words have meaning and all students in the district must be supported.

“While we are all entitled to our own opinions, beliefs, morals and standards, as board members and leaders of our communities, it is our responsibility to pay close attention to the words we use and to the insinuations we convey when discussing controversial issues,” Laudano said. “While we are adults and attempt to offer some guidelines, our children are listening to these words that instill fear and perpetuate hate — the very thing these children are fighting against.”

Board President Wade Abbott thanked members of the public for their comments, and said that board members have a lot to take into consideration and that he is confident the community can move forward by working together.

“I think the board has a lot of healing to do,” he said.

Contact reporter Chad Arnold at: [email protected] or by calling 518-395-3120.

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