A statement from the Connetquot Special Education Parents Teachers Association made during the public portion of the Nov. 15, 2022 board meeting has been circulating on social media following the hostile environment/discrimination lawsuit filed against the Connetquot School District by openly gay Connetquot High School math teacher, Christopher Dolce.
SEPTA members have challenged the circumstances of the initial incident, which spurred the lawsuit that was filed earlier this year. The allegations made in the statement offers an alternate explanation citing the well-being of special-needs students for the initial occurrence of Dolce’s colleague, math teacher Sarah Ecke, being asked to take down the Progressive Pride flag in her classroom.
Cited on Connetquot social media pages critical of the reasoning of why the flag was requested to be taken down by Ecke was a video from the Nov. 15, 2022 Board of Education meeting (beginning at approximately 2:07 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3lzF4UJfp8) where Jill Connors, who is currently listed as the Connetquot Special Education Parents Teachers Association president, identified herself as a board member speaking on behalf of the entire board, expressed concern for special needs students.
Connors said that the situation regarding the removal of the flag was an “unfortunate misrepresentation overshadowing the wonderful work of our district.”
“We are wondering what is being done to represent the special-needs students who have had no choice but to be thrown in the middle of all this… it is everyone’s opinion that the children were to allow multiple interruptions in their learning environment during the classroom period on a regular basis with no correction by the class educator or administration,” Connors said during the meeting. “Constantly being interrupted maybe an alternative room. We thought we had mindfulness rooms that expanded on that. How come there was no oversight when curriculum-based learning was taken down to allow room for club-based material? Why was this done during learning classroom time?”
Connors concluded that “it was never about a flag, nor what it represented; it was the disappearance of an educational environment and curriculum-based materials and the replacement with club-based material and personal beliefs in a special-education classroom. How is that an educator can put their personal needs ahead of a child’s academic success? Here we have an adult who put themselves ahead of their students.”
Ecke said in an interview with The Suffolk County News, accompanied with attorney Andrew Lieb, Lieb at Law, P.C., that she had faced no disciplinary actions from the school district regarding interruption or inadequate instruction to any of her students her entire tenure at Connetquot High School.
The classroom where Ecke teaches has been divided into two rooms, where instruction takes place in one side and a foyer, separated by a door, with a sitting area and desk on the other side.
Ecke said students from the Gay Straight Alliance, where she is advisor, would stop in and sit in the foyer as well as students from the basketball team, where she is a coach, along with a number of other students who gathered “in need of a safe or quiet space.”
The foyer area is approximately 4 feet by 6 feet.
“Kids drift into the classroom; they drift back and forth, like every other teacher,” said Ecke. “Sometimes kids come by to drop off uniforms or ask to get other stuff [sporting equipment].”
Ecke said that her teaching assistant, who is present at all times, will take over instruction if a student engages her during class time.
“Interruptions are part of the class; we have students in the class who have outbursts,” said Ecke.
The Progressive Pride flag had been up for a year prior to the September 2022 complaint that prompted then-superintendent Lynda Adams to ask to for it be taken down. Lieb was contacted by teachers after this initial incident in 2022.
Ecke said no issues had been reported about the Progressive Pride flag or the traditional Pride flag, the latter having been hung in her classroom for over eight years.
“It doesn’t track. Why, if a class is being interrupted by other students, would taking down a flag address the situation properly?” questioned Lieb.
Ecke also added that the instances where the flag was taken down caused more distress and uproar from students.
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