Pulling Back the Curtain on NEASC's Connections Conference
The ConCon scandal was MIP's biggest story last year. What happened at the 2025 conference? We expose the details the public didn't see.
Last spring, we told you about the Connections Conference, or ConCon, held at Sutton High School. This conference, sponsored by the school’s “Connections Club” and intended for middle and high schoolers, was propelled into the national spotlight after photos surfaced of a drag queen in a pink miniskirt dancing on tables in the library media center, surrounded by students. That performance, part of a session titled “Don’t be a Drag, Just be a Queen,” was only one of the outrageous parts of the conference, which also featured presentations such as “Mapping Out Your Social Justice Journey” and “Substitutes for Books by Dead, Straight White Guys.” If you haven’t read our deep dive on this indoctrination-camp-for-kids, click below.
Well, ConCon was back this past March for another year, but as we reported last October, it would not be at Sutton HS. After the district faced parental backlash for hosting the event, the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC), stepped in to take over the conference. It was announced that ConCon 2025 would be held at Clark University in Worcester, MA, under NEASC’s leadership.
When the new ConCon page went up on NEASC’s website, we couldn’t help but notice that far fewer details were provided than when it was held in Sutton. What sessions would be offered in 2025, and who would be teaching them? Would there be another drag queen performance? What would NEASC’s version of ConCon look like? It didn’t say. Since the conference still primarily serves public school students who attend with their school (and during a regular school day!), we thought parents needed to know. We did some investigating - and now, we are ready to share what we found with you. While we haven’t discovered any drag queen pictures (yet!), what we did learn is that the conference content is just as social-justice and gender-ideology saturated as last year. Here is the full schedule:
And here is the list of organizers:
One thing we noticed right away is how the 2025 conference program differs from 2024’s. In 2024, each workshop listed the first and last names of each of the presenters. In the 2025 program, none of the presenters are named. Instead, only the school or organization the presenter represents is listed. As we reported back in January, the 2025 ConCon workshop proposal form asks for the names of the presenters, so NEASC should have this information. Why was it not included?
For example, who from the Innovation Academy Charter School led the workshop Let Me Be Perfectly Queer, which provided a “broad overview of queer history” and taught children how to “make safer spaces for LGBTQ+ students and address harmful stereotypes.” And who thought that minors needed to play LGBTQ+ trivia at 9:30 AM? The program doesn’t say.
Through our investigation we uncovered that this session was led by the IACS’s GSA club (see photo below), which means that it was likely student led, at least to some degree. NEASC shouldn’t publish the names of students, of course, but the names of the GSA’s adult advisors should not be a secret.
If students missed “Let Me Be Perfectly Queer!,” there was another opportunity to engage in “Queer Trivia” that day thanks to Rhode Island Pride! This is at least the third time “Queer Trivia” was offered as a workshop presentation (we also found it in 2024 and 2022). In the past, Jess Motyl-Szary, Mx. Bisexual Rhode Island 2019, and Brett Jacob, Mr. Gay Rhode Island 2019, hosted trivia. Is Jess Motyl-Szary the face behind Rhode Island Pride trivia again this year?
It’s possible, since her spouse is Sutton’s Coleen Motyl-Szary, who is once again listed as a member of the ConCon planning team (this makes one wonder - is “Queer Trivia” a crowd favorite, or just a favorite of the organizers?). But because there are no names listed, we don’t truly know who presented on behalf of Rhode Island Pride this year. Given Rhode Island Pride’s sordid history, this should raise eyebrows. We think it’s reasonable to be concerned about who from the organization that just hosted a “vetted poc only kinky skillshare” was interacting with students at ConCon.
Another workshop ConCon offered at 9:30 AM was “Empathy In Action: Programs to Cultivate Inclusive Mindsets.” Here at MIP, we love empathy and compassion. However, this event was hosted by the Ashland High School C.A.R.E.S. program, which we are unfortunately familiar with since they helped organize a high school book club discussion back in 2024 on Gender Queer: A Memoir.
Gender Queer is a graphic novel that discussed sex toys and contains graphic depictions of oral sex, and referenced pedophilia and pornography. That’s what Ashland’s C.A.R.E.S team thinks counts as “welcoming” and “accepting.”
Knowing the group who lead this workshop, we wonder if students were taught about being inclusive, empathetic, and compassionate towards non-LGBTQ-affirming viewpoints, too? It’s almost certain they were not.
If students wanted to instead spend their morning learning how to support “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging” (DEIB) initiatives in their sports programs, this opportunity was readily available in two different workshops: “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging in Sports: Building Inclusive and Equitable Athletic Programs” and “Game On: Creating Inclusive Sports for All Students.”
We aren’t sure exactly what “building a more inclusive athletic community” means, but we do think it’s important to look past the phrasing of being welcoming and inclusive. It’s far more likely that, rather than an innocent presentation on kindness, this was a discussion about the ‘virtues’ of allowing biological men to compete in women’s sports.
The second session, led by the Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth and Safe Schools Program leaves even less ambiguity about what was presented. We don’t know who from these groups was there, but based on what we know about these organizations, we can safely assume the presentation was saturated with nonsensical gender ideology.
The Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth openly supports the MIAA policy that permits students to play on whichever sports team aligns with their gender identity. This is found in their 2026 Report and Recommendations. This isn’t surprising since the Commission routinely uses their government-funded office to advocate for leftist positions. The Commission promotes legalizing prostitution, removing school resource offices from public schools, using tax dollars to buy wigs and binders for “youth who may engage in sex work,” and more. We’ve written about this activist group before, and you can read more about them here.
From 10:30-11:45, students had the opportunity to attend a workshop titled “Not a Phase: Understanding all the +’s,” hosted by Assabet Valley Collaborative Orchard Street Academy.
What “less understood” identities that fall under the “+” category in LGBTQ+ are students being taught to respect and affirm? This call for “acceptance” can quickly morph into affirming and respecting predatory behavior hiding behind a “+.”
Given that several colleges were involved in planning and presenting at ConCon 2025, we think this is a fair question. It’s one thing to host it offsite at a college, but why do folks from Clark University, Bridgewater State, Wentworth Institute of Technology Boston, College of the Holy Cross, Sacred Heart University, and Ana Maria College Women’s Soccer seem to have such a passion for teaching minors about social justice and gender ideology? This sets off red flags. Parents must think critically about whether they feel it’s safe and appropriate for (mostly) unnamed adults - from adult-only institutions - to be teaching their children about sensitive topics that they should be learning at home.
And as we previously noted, Ted McCarthy, the Sutton High School principal who was not only behind, but also defended last year’s Diva D drag performance, was involved in planning again this year. We have to wonder - if he defended a drag performance last year that was (somewhat) addressed ahead of time in the program, what did he help organize this year that parents didn’t know about?
What else did we learn about ConCon 2025? As part of our investigation, we submitted public records requests to a few of the districts that sent kids to the conference. According to the documents we obtained, 55 schools and over 600 participants registered for the conference.
If you see your school or district in the list above, reach out to your child’s school or your local school committee directly to find out why.
We also obtained this permission slip, which confirms our suspicion that even parents who did know that their child was attending the conference likely did not really know the content of the conference, other than it being a social-justice oriented event. The permission slip parents signed for Danvers High School Nexx Gen students contained almost no information about the conference they were being asked to agree that their child could attend.
Why didn’t Ms. Ridley, Mr. Young, and DHS Principal Peter DiMauro provide more details about the conference to parents? Parents can’t make an informed decision with such a lack of transparency. No parent signing this permission slip would have any idea of what the conference is about, what content would be presented, or what adults would be there – they would simply have to take the school’s word for it. This is unacceptable, especially given what happened at this conference last year.
Every parent wants to be able to blindly trust their child’s school, but we know this isn’t an option. However, many parents still feel that certain school staff should be trustworthy, like guidance counselors and school social workers. Don’t they know best, after all?
The answer is, sometimes, no. Our investigation revealed that these counselors are often the driving or facilitating force behind this indoctrination. This Facebook post, which we modified to protect the identity of the child and family, is a perfect example of how this happens. Did this parent know what else would be taught at ConCon? Given the fact that we had to file public records requests to gain that information, we think not.
Our requests demonstrated the same pattern of school counselors and social workers being the primary contact for ConCon, as you can see below. Parents, if you spotted your child’s school on the ConCon distribution email earlier in this post, let us know in the comments if the staff member receiving the email is a guidance counselor or social worker! We bet a large percentage of them are.
(Courage is a Habit has done excellent work exposing how, and why, indoctrination comes in through the school counselor’s office. You can read their work here.)
To read all of the documents we received about ConCon 2025 via public records request, download them at the end of this post.
Mom and Dad, just because NEASC took over the conference this year does not mean your local school is off the hook. As long ConCon serves public school students with the blessing of public school administrators, the public needs to know what the conference is about. Schools are responsible for the events that they promote to their students. Just because it was endorsed by guidance counselors doesn’t mean it was beneficial for students. And a permission slip that contains misleading or incomplete information about the event isn’t a true permission slip at all. We still have eyes on this conference, and parents must stay vigilant as well.
NEASC kept the details of ConCon under the radar, but rest assured, it’s still on ours.
Did your school participate in ConCon 2025? If so, who was in charge, and who paid for it? Did the parents of the students who attended know what they were agreeing to? If not, bring your concerns to your local school committee to hold your school district accountable.
Taking a stand worked in Sutton, and it can work in your community, too. Whether it’s ConCon or indoctrination through another avenue, we urge you to continue advocating for truth. Stand up against the outrageous gender-ideology present in public schools and urge administrators to be transparent about what they’re really teaching your children.
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They are using public school resources to promote specific political/social ideologies under the guise of “social justice”.
That’s a misuse of resources, obviously, but how to object to it in a way that’s effective and force any change?
Here’s an idea: request equal time and resources at the conference, time to promote OUR political ideologies and our ideas of social justice.
If they don’t allow it, they’re discriminating right? A first amendment violation, kind of like allowing one church to have a holiday display on the town common, but not the other churches.
Force them to let us in, but in reality they would just be more likely to shut the whole thing down, which would also be a positive thing.
Just a thought.