Billerica Principal Issues Statement Denouncing Monica Cannon-Grant, Promises To Vet Speakers Better In Future, School Committee Chair Refuses To Condemn Monica’s Racism

 

Two days after we first reported that Monica Cannon-Grant was brought in as a Black History Month guest speaker and presented as a role model to kids at Billerica High School, Principal Tom Murphy has responded to the controversy. In a letter sent out to parents he states that Monica was paid with a grant from a 501c3 called Billerica Partners For Education. He admitted that based on the past statements she has made, which have only been published on Turtleboy Daily News, it was inappropriate to bring her in as a speaker. He has vowed to address the process moving forward for bringing speakers into the school.

I am doing a deeper dive into Billerica Partners For Education, the group that paid for Monica to be there, as well as the specific teacher who allowed this to happen.

Tom Murphy seems like a decent person, and a lot of people I trust have vouched for him. I would’ve preferred a stronger denunciation of Monica’s overt racism and threats towards Rayla Campbell and others, but an admittance of wrongdoing is a good first step. Ultimately his negligent leadership led to this. It is embarrassing and shameful for the school district to have brought in a well known woman who has been all over the news because she is facing 18 charges in federal court, and then say they had no idea who she was.

This assembly took place during the school day and all students attended. They were taken out of class and missed out on educational opportunities to listen to Monica Cannon-Grant lie to them repeatedly. You can watch the whole video here, because it won’t embed. But Monica told the student body that:

• The things they read about her criminal charges online are untrue
• She will throw a party for the kids after she wins in court, despite the federal government having a 99.6% conviction rate
• MLK and Malcolm X were both assassinated by the government, and compared her plight to theirs

The school allowed this woman to come into a cathedral of learning and spread blatantly false historical misinformation to students. What happens if this comes up on a test? Malcolm X was killed by members of the Nation of Islam because he changed his mind and no longer believed in racial segregation. MLK, according to what is taught in school, was killed by James Earl Ray. Although I’m willing to listen to any conspiracy theory, it is inappropriate to teach children conspiracy theories as fact. Students trust their teachers, and they trust that the school would not bring in a speaker who would lie to them.

To his credit, Principal Murphy also called out his boss in the letter, Superintendent Tim Piwowar. Piwowar refused to denounce Monica, and suggested that preventing a violent criminal like this from speaking was somehow stifling the voices of students, because they chose her. Does Tim Piwowar believe that students should be allowed to bring in any criminal and force the entire student body to listen to their lies? Or is it only criminals who are associated with leftist terrorist groups like BLM?

Last night during the Live Show we spoke with Billerica School Committee Chair Mark Efstratiou (53:00), as well as a student who supported Monica named Daniel (1:41:00). Efstratiou tried hard not to condemn her, while the student said ridiculous things that spoke volumes about how the school is brainwashing him.

 

 

To summarize about Efstratiou’s comments:

• He condemns racism as a vague comment, but when being confronted with racism from Monica he refused to specifically address it. He is clearly scared to do so. Saying you condemn racism is easy, but it’s meaningless if you won’t condemn racism when it happens in front of your face.
• He said that Monica has only been indicted on 18 federal charges, not convicted.
• He wouldn’t comment on fellow member Cheri Gargalianos vouching for and standing by Monica. Cheri has since blocked me for reaching out to her on Facebook, which is unacceptable. As an elected official the public must know why Cheri is OK with overt racism, and believes other people’s children should have to listen to a criminal defendant lie to them. Here’s her Facebook page, feel free to ask her yourself.

To summarize about Daniel’s comments:

• It’s OK for Monica to speak to students because she hasn’t been convicted yet. Brian Walshe has not been convicted of murdering of his wife, but he agreed that Walshe shouldn’t be allowed to speak to kids.
• When I told him that there are black doctors, attorneys, and scientists who would’ve been better role models to speak to and be presented as a role model to kids, he told me there were no black doctors in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
• He said that the things Monica has said have all been taken out of context.
• He said that it’s OK for Monica to tell a black woman like Rayla Campbell that she’s a “n***er,” and accuse her of riding a white penis for a better credit score, because black people are allowed to use the n word, and white people aren’t allowed to criticize them when they do.
• He believed that all of the things Monica said outside of school (threats, racism, etc) don’t matter as long as she didn’t say those things at the assembly.
• He said that Monica should be allowed to speak despite being controversial because the school allowed veterans to speak on Veteran’s Day. He said that veterans themselves are controversial because he believes that the US military is a terrorist organization that kills innocent people, and that veterans kill innocent people every day.
• He believes that Monica is only being criticized because she is black, not because she has been indicted and has a long and documented history of violent and racist rhetoric.
• He believes her speech was inspiring because she organized a protest for George Floyd that she ended up using to enrich herself with donations.
• He doesn’t mind that black people were defrauded by Monica.
• He believes that students who messaged me with concerns about Monica speaking are racist themselves for doing so.
• He believes that I am racist for saying the word “trigga” because it rhymes with a racial slur, but he doesn’t believe it is racist when Monica uses the actual racial slur to attack black women.
• When offered to connect with black people in Boston who can offer him insight about how the black community rejects Monica, he declined.
• He said that Monica threatening to blow Rayla’s head off is free speech and should not disqualify her from speaking in front of high school kids.

Meanwhile, Monica has been attempting to discredit my reporting on her on Twitter by posting defamatory statements, alleging that I sexually assaulted a 14 year old student while I was a teacher.

If Monica had any money I could sue her for libel and win very easily. Her source is a Buffalo blogger named James Kriger, who has since had his blog removed from the Internet after being sued for libeling a children’s charity and was ordered to pay a $38K judgment.

 

 

I also published the separation agreement I had with Shepherd Hill, showing that I was actually given a large payout to not sue the district as I pursued my new career as Turtleboy.

I know Monica is reading this, so I want to speak to her directly.

Monica, your baseless attacks on others have hurt a lot of innocent people over the years. I know you don’t care about this because you are a deranged narcissist who only thinks of herself. For years you enriched yourself by calling people racist who were too fearful to stand up to you. But I’m not scared of you. Your attacks only strengthened my resolve.

I was admittedly frustrated after years of documenting your behavior and fraud without any results. It was frustrating to watch the Boston Globe and politicians like Julia Mejia ignore your behavior. You thought that I would give up and go away, but I didn’t. I kept exposing you until finally the federal government began to look into you. Now you’ve been charged with 18 counts of fraud.

I did that to you.

I know that your narcissism makes you believe that you will win at trial, as you are unable to come to terms with reality. But I’m here to tell you that they have a 99.6% conviction rate, and your behavior since being charged, will lead to a much stiffer sentence from the judge. On the day you are convicted I expect there will be a look of shock in your eyes, much like there was when the feds raided your house in Taunton, because you probably haven’t even thought about the possibility of being convicted. You are that dumb.

But just know this – when you are convicted and the court officer puts you in handcuffs to take you away to federal prison, you’re going to look around the courtroom while crying and looking for your family. And the last face you will see as you breathe free air, will be mine. Your baby will grow up without a mother, which in this rare occasion is a good thing. It will take you several months in prison before reality finally sets in that this is your new life. You will cry yourself to sleep many nights, as you will struggle to come to terms with the fact that a blogger from Worcester put you in that box.

Don’t. Poke. The. Turtle.