My name is Reese Remington. I am a proud UMF Senior, studying political science. I could go on and on about the bureaucratic systems and the ins and outs of this school board election, but instead, I’d like to tell you about Emma. I met my partner, Emma, last year when we both came to Farmington for the first time. Emma is a special education major and is going to change the way we view education. Emma is the type of person that the education system dreams of having. They are patient, hard-working, and kind. Emma is also one of the most empathetic people I have ever met – all they want to do is see children who don’t have the same privilege as many of us do, succeed. But to some, that wouldn’t matter. It wouldn’t matter that Emma is a good person or that they genuinely want to be a teacher, because Emma is with me, a Black woman.
At a time and age where everything seems to be so up in the air, we are happy to call Farmington home. Beyond just attending college, I’ve been a full-time resident for over a year now and so has Emma. But when it comes to settling down in Farmington, the reality of that seems to fade with the grave uncertainty of how the school system will look in the future. While big elections of course matter, it is the smaller elections, like the upcoming school board election that affect your neighbors. You see, Emma is just one of many amazing educators at UMF who are also LGBTQ+. Currently, there is a candidate, Joe Clark, who is anti-lgbtq+ and refers to those such as “groomers.” Having Joe Clark elected, not only is bad for our school board and the prosperity of the children but also drives away future educators who only want to bring good into this world through teaching.
To Emma and others like them, it’s not about the right or left. It’s about picking candidates that ensure our school system does the best to promote success in our children, candidates like Todd Will Jones and Scott Erb.
All the best,
Reese Remington
Farmington, Maine
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