Sen. Donna Mercado Kim took to the floor of the state Senate this week to insult principals and educational officers in our public schools, calling them rude and disrespectful simply for showing up to her committee hearing on Friday and sharing their opinions.
We’re not letting her get away with it. On Wednesday, Executive Director Randy Perreira addressed a letter to Sen. Kim, copying the rest of her Senate colleagues, to condemn her attacks on free speech and her attempts to twist what happened on Friday to advance her agenda of dismantling the education department.
“Your deplorable floor speech fits with your pattern of lashing out when you are questioned and opposed — it is downright Trumpian,” Perreira wrote to Sen. Kim. “Here is what is disrespectful: Using your personal vendetta against school officials in your district for not agreeing or kowtowing to you. Your attempt to use your position to dismantle the organizational structure of our school system is an extreme means of attacking two school principals and their Complex Area Superintendent.”
Sen. Kim’s measure, SB 3334, would completely upend the way educational officers are selected and evaluated. It would also dismantle the DOE’s system of supports by axing the Complex Area Superintendents. As Perreira points out, Sen. Kim’s proposal has nothing to do with making education better for kids and everything to do with settling scores against educators who oppose her and bullying DOE officials she has a beef with.
This is what principals, vice principals and other educational officers showed up en masse to oppose. Based on her floor speech days later, it is clear the opposition from EOs got under Sen. Kim’s skin.
Contrary to claims by Sen. Kim, our members did not boo other testifiers and they were never reprimanded for their behavior by staff of the Legislature. They were exercising their rights as citizens to “petition their government for a redress of grievances,” as the First Amendment spells out.
HGEA will stand with our members who choose to oppose and speak out against Sen. Kim’s agenda. “I hope it is apparent that the HGEA will not stand for this type of bullying and attempted censorship in Hawaii. You can rest assured that we will defend our right to free speech, and that our elected representatives have not heard the last of us,” Perreira wrote.