Seacoast Outright training aims to help teachers keep all SAU 21 students safe: Letters

Seacoast Outright training meant to help teachers keep all SAU 21 students safe

Aug. 24 – To the Editor:

In his article published on Aug. 19, 2022 (Dueling protests: Parents clash over LGBTQ+ teacher training at SAU 21) Portsmouth Herald reporter Max Sullivan mentioned that “the group of counter protesters included Chris Muns, chairman of the Hampton Democrats.” Max did not interview me.

I did attend the meeting of the SAU 21 Joint Policy Committee on Aug. 18 and I did stand outside the entrance to Winnacunnet High School before the meeting not just as the chairman of the Hampton Democrats, but as a parent, former Winnacunnet School Board member and concerned member of our community. I was there to show my support for our administrators and teachers and for ALL our public-school students.

Students who are LGBTQ+ or who are struggling with what their identity is are at a significantly higher risk of being assaulted, bullied and – tragically – committing suicide. SAU 21 Superintendent Meredith Nadeau was quoted in the August 19 article as saying “In a district with 2,400 kids, that means we have 170 or so students who identify as LGBTQ+, and that means 85 of them have seriously considered suicide.” It is unfortunate, that none of the individuals protesting against SAU 21 who displayed signs or were quoted in the article expressed any concern for the welfare of the students who might be at risk.

Rather than sticking their heads in the sand and pretending there is not an issue, the leadership of SAU 21 should be commended for the proactive approach they are taking to help teachers and other staff help students who are dealing with these issues.

The organization SAU 21 chose to provide this training - Seacoast Outright – was founded by a group of concerned parents in 1993. Since then, they have been one of the only resources available to LGBTQ+ youth and their families in the Seacoast area. Their mission has always been to create a safe space for youth to explore the topics of gender and sexuality in a welcoming and understanding environment.

Seacoast Outright is not a political organization and the SAU 21 Administration is not making a political “statement” by hiring them. They are trying to provide our teachers and administrators with every available tool to enable them to help keep our students safe. Hopefully that is something we can ALL support.

Chris Muns

Hampton

Eversource committed to providing reliable energy to Seacoast

August 24 – To the Editor:

I’m writing in response to guest columnist Tom Morgan who wrote about Portsmouth thwarting solar and other renewable energy development. I cannot comment on those assertions but want to set the record straight about who owns the power plants selling power into the New England electric grid and the reasons Eversource (formerly PSNH) built the transmission line serving the Seacoast.

New England lawmakers deregulated the generation portion of the electric utility industry decades ago, in an effort to lower electric rates. This means that unregulated merchants own, operate and sell power into the New England electric grid.

After PSNH sold its share of Seabrook Station to NextEra Energy, a Florida Power & Light subsidiary in 2002, NH’s Legislature halted the sales of PSNH’s other power plants, including Schiller, Newington and Merrimack Stations, and 9 hydro stations. This was in reaction to the market manipulation & chaos which led to sky-high electric rates and blackouts in California and the collapse of Enron.

The Legislature eventually cleared the way for PSNH/Eversource to proceed with the divestiture of its power plants which were sold about 5-6 years ago. So it is incorrect to state that Eversource owns the coal power plant in Bow and built the Seacoast transmission line to continue to feed its fossil fueled power into the grid. In fact, the transmission line was built to improve system reliability, build redundancy and allow for more distributed generation, which is exactly what Mr. Morgan wants!

Elizabeth LaRocca

Durham

Biden's weakness on military and economy is the true threat to our democracy

Aug. 23 – To the Editor:

Threats to democracy is the key voter issue according to a poll. To some that reflects the January 6, 2020 publicized hearings. To me it is the military and economic situation caused by President Biden.

Weakness is the key word. The economic weakness is inflation caused in part by the Covid plague but mostly by government fueling it by the Biden American Rescue Plan unleashing a torrent of cash into an already recovering economy. The penultimate demonstration of weakness was Biden’s precipitous Afghanistan surrender to the Taliban which lead to Putin’s invasion of a free Ukraine and the current very real threat to the freedom of Taiwan. The problem is compounded by a budget that reduces the US naval fleet and nothing to arm Taiwan to repel a mainland invasion. To top it all off though, we are supplying Ukraine arms, we will not give them airplanes and tanks needed for the offensive power to overcome Russia’s 5 to 1 artillery advantage.

Concurrently, Biden allows an invasion over our southern border.

Due to inflation and our worldwide retreat we are rapidly becoming a military target. Biden is the current threat to our democracy.

Tom Pearson

Rye

I write about Trump because he thinks he's above the law

Aug. 24 – To the Editor:

Dan Hurley’s letter “due Process for Hillary and Hunter but not for former President Trump” asks why I write about Trump and not Hunter Biden or Hillary Clinton.

Hunter Biden, at worst, got a job in Ukraine because his father was Vice President at the time.  He did not use that position to protect a Saudi head of state who had ordered the kidnapping and killing of a Washington Post journalist or offer the United Arab Emirates F35 fighter planes in exchange for that country ending their boycott of Israel.  Trump’s son in law did with Trump’s blessing.

Neither Hunter nor Hillary gave security clearances to family members whom the government had deemed security risks as did Trump. Neither took home over 700 pages of documents marked classified, secret, top secret and top secret compartmented when they left office as The National Archives and Records Administration confirmed Trump did.  That was before Trump turned over 15 more boxes in June and in July the FBI found 11 more boxes containing classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.

Hillary Clinton testified for hours in front of 4 House hearings which found nothing Trump could charge her with. Trump, thus far, has taken the 5th 400 times rather than incriminate himself.

So, Mr. Hurley, I write about Trump because he has set out to prove there is no law he cannot get away without breaking and he has proved he cannot be trusted with our nation’s secrets.

Walter Hamilton

Portsmouth

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Seacoast Outright trains teachers to keep SAU 21 students safe: Letters