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07/25/2023 01:02 PMThe Guilford Police Department issued an arrest warrant for a retired Guilford police officer who was subsequently placed into custody and charged with breach of peace after sending a threatening email to Guilford High School (GHS) Principal Julia Chaffe.
According to the arrest warrant application, retired Guilford Police Officer and School Resource Officer William Maisano sent an email to Guilford Chaffe on June 16, citing “hell to pay” if “Pride colors” were displayed in a specific teacher’s hair at the graduation ceremony later that day.
In the email sent to Chaffe, Maisano wrote, in part, “I am told that Regina Sullivan has seen fit to dye her hair in Pride colors for graduation. I didn’t say a word last year. I’m telling you right now, if I see her dragging her personal politics and sexual preferences into this event, there is going to be hell to pay. As a teacher, by law, she will be crossing the line, and so will the school by not shutting this down.”
Sullivan is a health and physical education teacher at GHS, is the varsity girls’ soccer team coach, serves as president of the school’s teacher’s union, and is the advisor of the Gender and Sexualities Alliance Club. She identifies as a lesbian. After receiving the email, Chaffe contacted the police.
According to the affidavit, Chaffe said she was “concerned by the email’s tone and content, specifically the phrase ‘there is going to be hell to pay.’” Sullivan contacted Guilford police and reported the “threatening” email on June 18.
When questioned, Maisano told police he was “upset that the political statement would detract from the hard work of all the graduating seniors” but stated that he did not intend to hurt anyone and assured police he would not disrupt the ceremony, according to the affidavit.
Maisano also sent another email to Chaffe later the same day, stating, “My phrasing was meant as a statement that if she [Sullivan] were allowed to make graduation about herself, then I would respond. Not with violence but with media exposure. A faculty member is being allowed to hijack what should be a day just for students. The fact that Regina can’t put aside her politics and sexual preferences for an afternoon should be concerning. No other teacher should behave this way. That was my only point, and I am disappointed that you couldn’t recognize that. Unless one of my kids is graduating, I don’t even go. For the record, the only violence in Guilford has been committed against people like me and my family. But I think you know that.”
Maisano was a member of a coalition of residents who ran for seats on the Board of Education (BOE) in November 2021. Since that time, Maisano and several other candidates have sued the town of Guilford and members of the BOE and staff, claiming their children’s civil rights were violated when school administrators failed to respond appropriately after reports that their children were the alleged targets of bullying.
That case is still working its way through the court system.
Maisano was a Guilford police officer for 18 years, serving as a school resource officer for part of that time. He has had long-standing disagreements with school administrators, going back many years before his run for the BOE and the lawsuit. Many of those issues focus on how Guilford Public Schools implement their sexual education curriculum.
According to the affidavit, several incidents have occurred between Maisano and Sullivan over the past few years. In a statement to police, Sullivan said, “(O)ver the past few years, he has vehemently and vocally opposed LGBTQ+ curriculum, instruction, visual aids, and lifestyle.”
The affidavit described an April 25 incident in which Maisano and Sullivan attended a meeting convened by Chaffe to discuss a complaint filed by another parent regarding a book Sullivan had assigned to GHS students. In the affidavit, Sullivan described Maisano as “sarcastic and dismissive of her and objected to her presence” in the meeting.
Sullivan told police that for the first time in 46 years as a Guilford resident and 23 years as an educator, she felt unsafe, unwanted, intimidated, and threatened because of her sexuality.
Police said that a retired officer should have known his word choice would cause inconvenience, annoyance, alarm, and panic. “Furthermore, violence and threats against members of the LGBTQ+ community and public institutions like schools appears to be on the rise.”
Police officials declined to comment specifically on the allegations, but Chief of Police Chris Massey said his department responds to every complaint diligently and without bias, and this particular matter has been investigated no differently than any other.
“We made an arrest via warrant, and the way the warrant process works is that we conduct an investigation, then present it to court for judicial review for probable cause. The warrant was signed, and an arrest was made, and now that case is going to be handled in court. The Guilford Police Department is committed to providing safety to all the residents of Guilford,” Massey said.
Maisano and Sullivan declined to make public comments for this story.