Beating The Extreme Right!

By Len Yannielli

How can we beat the extreme right? The grassroots just did that in Naugatuck.

Aaron McCool (R) was elected to the local board of education by a few hundred votes in 2021. He immediately went to work dissing diversity efforts and fighting racism in educational settings.

McCool kept trying to shift the focus of the local school board to teacher evaluations. It didn’t work. Why? He’s gone!

Here’s how it happened.

Following the 2020 defeat of the extreme right nationally, a trend was clearly visible. There were elements energized by the January 6^th raid on the Capital. The direction the extreme right took was to go local.

That is what happened in Naugatuck. George Mudry (R) , who was at the march to the Capital, ran for a local Burgess seat. Aaron McCool (R), who moved to Naugatuck two years ago from New York, ran for school board with a “back to basics” message. Both won.

As with so many local elections, races were determined by a few hundred votes.

As of 2019-20, the high school population was 40% students of color. There was only one Black teacher in the entire school system.

The school board adopted a policy of hiring educators with an eye on diversifying its overwhelmingly white staff. Once elected, McCool political and racist meanness surfaced. He actually claimed that this policy was pitting community members against each other. He wanted the emphasis placed on teacher evaluations.

The grassroots would have none of this. When it was revealed that McCool, as an adult, had posted young women in compromised poses, people moved into action.

There were two important outcomes of the massive George Floyd march in Naugatuck. A group called Naugatuck Peaceful Protests formed (https://www.facebook.com/groups/286402645741519/, communicating mostly by facebook. A Diversity, Equality and Inclusiveness group organized on the ground.

This latter group issued a petition online for McCool’s ouster. CTPW supporters contacted the Mayor’s Office directly.

McCool resigned the following day!