A Massachusetts public high school has pulled an invitation from an alumnus scheduled to speak at a veterans event due to his past “commentary on homosexuality.”
Former Southwick High School student Kyle Reyes was to be keynote speaker and master of ceremonies at the Ransford W. Kellogg V.F.W. Post 872-sponsored event … that is until Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District Superintendent Jennifer Willard put the kibosh on it.
According to the New Boston Post, Willard informed Kellogg Post Chairman Troy Henke that because of his views, Reyes could “make some of the students feel unsafe and unincluded.”
Henke added he was told by Southwick Principal Joseph Turmel that some of his teachers “are active in pro-homosexuality advocacy outside the school and might be uncomfortable attending an event with Reyes as speaker.”
Neither Willard nor Turmel cited a written work or video by Reyes (who’s not a veteran, by the way) as an example of his “wrongthink.”
The May 21 event is the dedication of a new addition to the school, the foyer of which will honor three Southwick graduates who died while serving in the armed forces.
Reyes said he is puzzled by the reason given, because he has not commented much about homosexuality. But he has written and spoken about transgender bathrooms and he has poked fun at gender studies.
Yet he wasn’t planning to speak about anything controversial, he said. He was a senior at the school when terrorists attacked New York City on September 11, 2001.
“I was going to give a three-minute speech about sitting in history class and seeing the Twin Towers fall, and how so many of my friends went on to serve our country because of that moment that I experienced while sitting in Southwick High School,” Reyes said in an interview with New Boston Post. …
“The sad irony of this entire situation is that an event that was never going to be political has been turned into an unfortunate controversy by the very school that was going to be befitting from this engagement,” Reyes said.
Henke noted that Superintendent Willard and Principal Turmel “offered to open the building to an after-school event” on the day of the dedication, and Reyes would be permitted to speak then. Instead, he said the V.F.W. post will host its own “pre-dedication” event on May 12.
“This is unfortunate what happened. We don’t like it. We don’t think it’s right. But at the end of the day we want to keep this ceremony about the veterans and the Gold Star families,” Henke said.
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