Bourne school committee member Kari MacRae expressed two conservative viewpoints in a Tik Tok video after she won a seat on her town’s school committee earlier this year.
Now, a former member of the school committee is trying to oust her.
Anne-Marie Siroonian is spearheading a recall election against MacRae now that the conservative has been in office for more than six months — a requirement to recall a local office holder in Bourne.
MacRae ran unopposed for the seat back in May and is scheduled to serve a three-year term. Siroonian, who served on Bourne’s school committee from 2010 to 2018, wants to run against MacRae if there ends up being a recall election.
MacRae’s offense?
The former public school teacher said that Critical Race Theory and transgenderism don’t belong in the classroom.
MacRae told NewBostonPost in a telephone interview this week that the recall effort is a smear campaign that’s trying to paint her beliefs as something they are not.
“They want to label me as being racist, a homophobe, and a transphobe because I said certain things shouldn’t be taught in schools,” MacRae said. “That’s all I said. And the more people see and hear what I actually have to say, they’re realizing that the left is trying to make me a lot worse than I apparently am.”
MacRae, who is also running for Massachusetts Senate as a Republican in the Plymouth & Barnstable district in 2022, said that there are a lot of people in her town who agree with what she said and want the classroom to be apolitical.
“We are one of the most conservative towns in Massachusetts,” MacRae said. “We’re one of a few. Conservatives usually try to keep to themselves and leave everything else alone because it’s not really affecting them. But now we’ve hit a crossroads where it’s intrusive to everyone and you have more conservatives like me speaking out, holding them accountable, and saying enough’s enough.”
So pretty much the reason I ran for school board and the reason I’m taking on this responsibility is to ensure that students, at least in our town, are not being taught critical race theory. That they’re not being taught that the country was built on racism. So they’re not being taught that they can choose whether or not they want to be a girl or a boy. It’s one thing to include and it’s one thing to be inclusive. And it’s one thing to educate everybody about everything. It’s completely another thing to push your agenda. With me on the school board, that won’t happen in our town.
The video also got MacRae fired from her post as a teacher at Hanover High School.
Siroonian, who could not be reached for comment on Thursday or Friday this week, told The Cape Cod Times that MacRae’s social media activity is “just rooted in hate.”
“You were elected to serve the students of our community. Bourne is an inclusive community,” Siroonian said, according to The Cape Cod Times. “That’s not what we’re about.”
First, those wanting a recall must file an affidavit with the town clerk’s office that has the signatures of at least 250 registered voters; the affidavit must include the politician’s name and a statement on why supporters of the recall want it.
Within 10 business days, the town clerk is supposed to then deliver petition blanks to one or more people who signed the affidavit. Then, the recall petition effort has 45 days to get at least 10 percent of the town’s registered voters (as of the most recent town election) to sign the petition. Those signatures must be filed it with the town clerk’s office. The papers with the signatures must include the person’s name and address. The town clerk’s office is supposed to verify the signatures within five business days after the deadline for filing the papers.
If all of that is successful, the Bourne Board of Selectmen is supposed to give a written notice to the office holder about the upcoming recall. If that person doesn’t resign within five calendar days, then the board of selectmen sets a recall date, usually between 60 to 90 days later.
If a candidate either resigns during the recall process or loses a recall election, that person cannot be elected or appointed to office in the town for one year.
A video file of MacRae’s widely-circulated TikTok is available below:
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