Category Archives: Campaign

Let’s Talk: Gender in High School Sports

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A few weeks back, as I was desperately trying to get as many signatures on my nomination papers as possible, I had a woman look willing to sign for me, but then decided she wanted to ask me some questions on where I stood on the issues. Which is always a completely fair question.

It turns out she only had one question for me. “Where do you stand on boys playing girls’ sports?”

And, sure, I may be new at running for political office, but I’m not new at dealing with people looking at me as a bearded, slightly overweight white guy, probably wearing cargo shorts at the time, and making a quick determination that I am on ‘their team.’ It’s also not my first day on Earth, so I knew very well what her actual question was about.

But, I gave her a sincere look and answered her question directly and honestly.

“Ma’am, I know that there have been boys playing traditionally girl’s sports in Massachusetts for some time, when there is no equivalent boy’s sport offered at their school. I know it happens in Field Hockey and Volleyball and has for some time.”

She took a couple of seconds to process my response and very politely (honestly!) let me know that she would be unable to sign my petition or vote for me.

This morning I actually had the opportunity to do some research on this. I did not know that Massachusetts is the only state that has legally ruled that the Equal Rights Amendment guarantees boys the right to play traditionally girls’ sports (I will be calling them “girl’s sports” moving forward here, entirely for readability’s sake) if the school lacks an equivalent boy’s team.

The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association has released the breakdown of participants in sports for the 2024-25 school year, broken down by both sport and gender.

Last year 161 boys participated in girls’ sports. As I expected, there was Field hockey and Volleyball. There were also 10 boys who participated in Softball.

My numbers don’t count the 21 boys who competed in Gymnastics, because I don’t know enough to know if they directly compete against the girls or how that works. More learning for me to do. They also don’t include potential cases that the numbers I see can’t explain like a theoretical case where a school may not have a boy’s tennis team, but the data I have doesn’t show that.

But, we certainly had a minimum of 161 boys playing girls’ sports last year. The numbers are reasonably consistent going back too.

But my original point to the woman is that this is commonly accepted, even more so from a legal standpoint.

161 student athletes who identify as bona fide males participating in girls’ sports involving some level of face-to-face competition.

I was unable to find the numbers of transgender girls playing sports in Massachusetts, but former governor Charlie Baker, now President of the NCAA, said in late 2024 that less than 0.00196078431373% of college athletes are transgender.

If that percentage were to hold for high school athletes, that would mean that there were three transgender girls out of the 147,550 female athletes competing in Massachusetts high schools. And that’s assuming none of them played multiple sports.

I did not major in math, but I believe that three is a much smaller number than 161.

Sometimes I think this manufactured debate doesn’t really have anything to do with conservatives’ sudden interest in girls’ and women’s athletics at all.

Thank You, Yankee National Party

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Been a while since I’ve posted. Time for a quick little catch-up.

I am honored to have my campaign for School Committee receive an official endorsement from the Yankee National Party. The goals and aims of the YNP align with many of the things I hope to see take root in Massachusetts (and all of New England.) The YNP platform is based around the core values of Independence, Democracy, Empathy and Sustainability, all of which I share.

“Randy’s vision for the future of education in Fall River is both inspiring and pragmatic. He is focused on implementing positive change, not just for students, but for teachers and support staff as well,” said Derrick Coleman, Chairman of the Massachusetts State Chapter of the YNP.

Images for the Yankee National Party and the flag of New England. The Yankee National Party logo has a green pine tree along the left side of a white background. To the right of the tree, the words Yankee, National, and Party are each on their own line in black text. To the right of the word Yankee is a red compass rose. The other image is the flag of New England. This flag is largely a red background with a white upper-left corner. There is a green pine tree in the white field

I look forward to working with Derrick and the Yankee National Party to help promote the core values throughout our community.

WTTWST

Who Are You Up There For?

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A screenshot of the April 17, 2025 Emergency School Committee meeting

Last night there was an emergency session of the Fall River School Committee to have an executive discussion about the recent cyber attack that hit the district.

I find it troubling that some current members of the Fall River School Committee couldn’t even agree to go into the executive session to discuss the situation without trying to turn the meeting into a witch hunt against the mayor or to use the forum as an opportunity to air their grievances against one another.

Nothing about the arguments the committee members were raising, nor their attempt to censure Mayor Paul Coogan for talking to the media, had anything to do with anything that would help the staff, students or families of Fall River.

The constant sniping, bickering and, frankly, ganging up on one another shown by a small handful of the Committee serves zero purpose towards the greater good. The Fall River Schools.

(As an aside, I suspect that many of the same Committee members who had problems with the Mayor talking to the press in generalities about the attack would have instead taken issue if the Mayor had not said anything publicly at all, and would have levied charges of him ‘hiding from the problem.’)

Yes, the fact that our schools got hacked is horrible, and, like a lot of parents, I do
want answers. Answers on what happened, and answers on what information was captured. I am a Security Analyst in my day job, and have a somewhat personal interest especially in also learning what precautions were missed that allowed the attack to happen and, most importantly, what steps have been or are going to be taken to help prevent similar attacks in the future.

(As a second aside, I can also say that having your network hit by cybercriminals is no longer a question of “If” it will happen, but “When” and “What can we do to minimize the damage?” It is way too early, at least in what is publicly known, to be pointing fingers and blame.)

But I also know that these answers are not necessarily known at this time, and even the answers that are known cannot be made publicly available while a criminal investigation is still ongoing.

And I’m not sure which would be worse; That the School Committee doesn’t also know this, or that they do indeed know this and still chose to strut around asking questions on camera that they knew could not be answered, at least not in an open public session.

Which is exactly why I am running for School Committee in 2025. We need a Committee comprised of people who are not up on the stage primarily to promote personal agendas and drive personal vendettas.

The people of Fall River deserve a committed group of Committeepersons whose only goal is to work together to make the Fall River School District become the best it can possibly be. For the students, for the teachers and for the entire city of Fall River.

I want to help make this happen. Not only for my children, but for the entire city. We can make this happen. We’ll Try Together, and We’ll Succeed Together.

Here We Go

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Just in case the change of pictures on the blog wasn’t clue enough, I want to say that I have submitted paperwork to run for School Committee in the 2025 Fall River election.

When my family and I moved to Fall River three summers ago, I was nervous about what I had read about the school district. But I can happily say that the vast majority of my family’s experiences, first at Silvia Elementary School and now at Morton Middle School have been wonderful for the growth of both of my daughters.

Not everything has been perfect. Before Christmas, Twin A came home from school sad that her favorite teacher was leaving to take an “opportunity in a different state.” I asked her if she knew where the teacher was leaving for. Unfortunately for the students, the other state happened to be the same state that is also one town south and west of us.

I’ve talked with a few teachers already and heard enough comments from teachers at School Committee meetings to have a pretty good understanding that the teachers and other professionals in our district do not feel that they are being treated with the respect that they deserve.

There was an agreement with the teachers fairly recently on a new contract but, as of today, I am not aware that the administrative professionals and school support staff have been granted a new contract that meets any of their demands.

If I am lucky enough to be granted a position on the School Committee, I promise to do everything in my power to make sure that all of the school employees are given every available resource to help them do the best possible job for all of our students. I know that’s what they want as well, otherwise they would have never entered this profession.

The teachers and all of the staff in the district want what’s best for the kids. We parents want what’s best for our kids as well. The School Committee needs to remember that they too are responsible for doing what’s best for the kids. Not every choice will be easy. But We’ll Try Together and We’ll Succeed Together.

I look forward to meeting with as many of you as possible during the coming months.