NEW SCOTLAND — A Voorheesville School Board member is facing online criticism for his personal thoughts about former President Donald Trump’s return to the position.

Earlier this week, the X account Libs of TikTok reposted Voorheesville School Board member Matthew Bergeron’s Facebook post about the Nov. 5 election results, in which Trump received 50.2 percent of the 148,730,215 ballots cast on Nov. 5 and 312 electoral college votes to Vice President Kamala Harris’ 226.

“Meet Matt Bergeron,” the Nov. 11 tweet on X began, “a board member for the Voorheesville Central School District in NY. Matt has been very angry at the results of the election and believes that Trump voters support ‘chaos, r*pe, habitual lying, indecency, and unbridled selfishness.’

“He also thinks that by electing Donald Trump, parents have taught their sons to be r*pists.

“This person is in charge of your child’s education.”

The post, as of Nov. 14, had garnered close to 600,000 views. 

With 3.7 million followers on X, formerly Twitter, Libs of TikTok is known for derisively highlighting content created by left-leaning and LGBTQ+ individuals and for promoting and posting far-right and anti-LGBT narratives. 

CBS6 was the first local outlet to highlight the incident; the station is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which has been characterized as the Fox News of local media. 

Bergeron’s post said:

“If you feel as though this election hurts as much as it does because it’s invalidated all you’ve been taught, you’re not alone. We were taught to tell the truth, treat others with dignity, be empathetic, and always treat others with decency. Indeed, we teach these things to our own kids and they are fundamental skills taught in school. 

“But now? A conscious, deliberate decision was made by a majority of voters in this country to disregard those lessons. They've somehow rationalized within themselves that the behaviors we see on the national stage are acceptable for elected office, but (hopefully) at the same time presumably would not approve of their own children sexually assaulting others, lying without compunction, insulting others as their primary form of communication, and doing only what benefits themselves. 

“These two interests are not compatible. No self-respecting adult can vote for one yet expect the opposite of our children. Therefore, common sense could (must?) lead the rest of us to conclude that such adults not only approve of, but maybe even go out of their way to model and teach, such abhorrent behavior. 

“There’s so much more I want to or could say. But I won’t. Not now. Well, except this for emphasis: If you voted for chaos, r*pe, habitual lying, indecency, and unbridled selfishness, you’ve made the jobs of the responsible adults much harder. We are now charged with mitigating and undoing the harm you’ve fomented. Thanks a lot.”

Bergeron did not respond to an Enterprise request for comment. 

Board response

Rachel Gilker, president of the Voorheesville School Board, said in a statement: 

“The Board of Education at Voorheesville Central School District has received feedback from members of the community regarding recent statements made by a member of the school board on their personal social media account. It’s important to note that the views expressed are those of the individual and not the official views of the district.

“As a board we do not take partisan political positions. Per board policy, the president of the Board of Education or their designee is the official spokesperson for the board; all public statements made on behalf of the Board of Education will be made by that person and will state that it is made on behalf of the entire board.

“Individual board members maintain their rights to publicly express their personal opinions and views, political and otherwise. Our school community remains a place where students are encouraged to be civically engaged while being both respectful and inclusive of all opinions.”

As for the school district itself, Superintendent Frank Macri referred The Enterprise to Gilker’s statement when asked for comment. 

No real surprise 

Bergeron’s post shouldn’t come as a surprise. Prior to recently deleting his Facebook account, he espoused liberal views in his posts. 

An attorney for New York State United Teachers — a union that almost exclusively backs Democrats running for office — Bergeron had the support of both the statewide and school district unions in his May run for board. 

That support allowed Bergeron and former Voorheesville Teachers Association President Kathy Fiero to easily unseat Timothy Kremer, a highly-qualified incumbent who once led the statewide school board association. Kremer was by far the lowest vote-getter on May 21, receiving 323 votes to Fiero’s 643 and Bergerson’s 550. 

Then there’s the district itself.

In 2022, as hundreds if not thousands of right-leaning candidates ran for school boards across the country, Voorheesville’s so-called parents’ rights candidates received just one-quarter to one-third of the vote count of the winners, one of whom only recently started to stand for the pre-meeting Pledge of Allegiance.