PENFIELD, N.Y. – The fallout continues after a fiery Penfield school board meeting where a man in a gorilla suit and MAGA hat showed up, causing some to call it an act of racism against the board, four of whom are women of color.
The meeting was originally held to discuss concerns over an LGBTQ-themed picture book featuring cartoon nudity on elementary school shelves.
News10NBC spoke with the man behind the mask, Jeff Briggs, as well as Penfield’s superintendent and school board president.
“I can’t believe in 2025, we’re even discussing something like this,” said Dr. Emily Roberts, a member of the Penfield Board of Education.
Dr. Roberts expressed her hurt over the incident, stating, “The intent behind that was to intimidate, the superintendent is a woman of color, and there are four members that were present on that board that are all women of color.”
Briggs claimed he didn’t intend for the suit to be interpreted as a racist attack.
“My good friend’s grandson had complained about children in his class identifying as cats, wearing tails, whiskers, ears, and, he got suspended twice. All I wanted to do was walk in with that to get a reaction, to show the school board that [dressing like an animal] could be disruptive. Did I know that the superintendent was a black woman? I had no idea,” Briggs said.
Briggs said he attempted to apologize via email but received no response. He also claimed that when buying the suit at Arlene’s Costumes, he had limited options.
News10NBC’s Tom Kowalski visited Arlene’s Costumes and found several other animal suits aside from a gorilla. The clerk said the costumes had been there since Halloween.
The original reason for the crowd’s presence was to voice concern over “The Rainbow Parade,” an LGBT book featuring cartoon nudity, with some describing it as pornographic. Despite the loud objections, Superintendent Tasha Potter stated that no one has officially begun the process to remove the book from shelves.
“Policy 8330 is the policy that we use…If a family determines that there is a book that they object to being in circulation in our library. …we have the book in three of our elementary schools and one of our elementary schools, actually has the book, introduced in their library in 2022,” Potter explained.
Policy 8330 then goes to a committee of library specialists, teachers, parents, and students when appropriate.
However, Briggs feels differently.
“I think they’re doing more harm by putting those books on the shelves than they’re doing good. They’re harming their children, those that are going to those schools by not telling them. And the process we were told was insulting.”
The story has gained national attention, even from Elon Musk, who posted about it on X.
The full interview with Jeff Briggs can be viewed on News10NBC’s YouTube page here:
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