Niagara Falls City Councilwoman Kristen Grandinetti used her Facebook page to apologize to her employer, the Niagara Falls City School District, for remarks she made on the page earlier concerning the type of sexual education program taught in the district.
"I would like to take this opportunity to extend an apology to the Niagara Falls city school district for using language that was rather heavy-handed to get my point across," Grandinetti posted on May 7. "It was completely inappropriate to refer to them as criminal anyone who knows me knows I love being a teacher and I love working for the school district."
In the earlier post, the pre-kindergarten teacher argued that the district's sex-ed curriculum be changed from its current, abstinence focused message to a more comprehensive approach that acknowledges the fact that children have sex. The challenge then becomes providing the youngsters with the tools that will help them avoid unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease. In that post, she stated that the city district's failure to embrace the new curriculum was "borderline criminal."
Whether you agree with her or not, Grandinetti has always had the courage of her convictions, and after apologizing to the district for the language, she reaffirmed her commitment.
"That being said I have been a long time advocate for women's rights and for the rights of the LGBT community and I am proud of that and I do believe that we as a community could do better at preventing unwanted pregnancies, preventing domestic violence and making sure all of our children feel as if they are part of our community and our society," she wrote.
More than any other city official, Grandinetti has employed Facebook to get these messages across. Debate of women's rights, the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, preventing unwanted pregnancies and domestic violence and the inclusion of all aren't topics that come up at Niagara Falls City Council meetings, or in the classroom full of 4-and-5-year-olds she works in.
Despite the controversial nature of many of these issues, Grandinetti is unafraid to address them on her Facebook page and sometimes she goes too far - even for her - which is saying quite a lot.
Like last week. And she apologized for it.