A group of Massachusetts students protested an assistant superintendent candidate over alleged Facebook posts about transgender athletes, MassLive reported Thursday.
The group of students from Hampshire Regional School District staged a sit-in outside the superintendent’s office to show their disapproval of Dr. Erica Faginski-Stark’s candidacy, according to MassLive. (RELATED: NYC Private School Recommends Kindergarteners Read About Trans Infants)
Superintendent Diana Bonneville of Hampshire Regional High School is set to nominate Faginski-Stark for the newly created assistant superintendent position, Hampshire Regional School Committee Chairperson Kim Schott told MassLive.
Faginski-Stark was originally in the running to become superintendent of Easthampton schools, but pulled out due to students being concerned about her social media posts, according to MassLive.
A high school volleyball player suffered head and neck injuries when she was hit with a ball spiked by a male.
Now, she’s standing up for fairness in girls’ and women’s sports.https://t.co/cZuUIuiRmm
— OutKick (@Outkick) June 17, 2023
The backlash stems from a 2021 Facebook post where Faginski-Stark shared a PragerU article titled “The End of Women’s Sports.” The article criticized biological males competing in women’s sports.
“For EVERY female athlete out there, it’s time to speak up,” Faginski-Stark wrote. “As a former Div. 1 scholarship athlete and academic & athletic All American, our young women just got stripped of their equal rights and equal opportunity yesterday.”
Students at Easthampton found Faginski-Stark’s post in April, according to MassLive. They labeled Faginski-Stark’s comments “transphobic rhetoric” and pushed for an investigation against the superintendent candidate, the outlet noted. Faginski-Stark reportedly withdrew from the race after a couple of days.