Sharp, Darrell

Meet the Candidate

Running For:
School Board
District:
Bellefonte Area School District
Age:
42
Occupation:
Plant Manager
Education: (click to expand)
Biographical Info: (click to expand)
Why are you running for office? (click to expand)

Survey

Response Legend

  • SSupport
  • OOppose
  • UUndecided
  • −Declined to Respond/Undecided, Position Unknown/Unclear
  • *Comment
  • †Declined to respond, Position based on citation

Question Response Comments/Notes
1. Providing state tax credits and education savings accounts to enable parents to choose what school their child attends. S* Parents need to have a choice in what would provide their children with the best possible education. Ideally, this competitive pressure would motivate school districts to provide a high-quality education and be the choice of the parents. That involves items such as having a well thought out curriculum, hiring and retaining top notch educators, and having honest and open communication with parents.
2. Reserving girls’ sports exclusively for biological females. S* There was a battle fought for Title 9 to ensure girls had similar athletic opportunities as boys and now we are looking at regressing. We cannot allow biological males to compete against biological females. If you need any further facts that show the athletic advantage that males have over females, I strongly encourage you to visit this website: https://boysvswomen.com/#/. This compares the top HIGH SCHOOL BOYS to the OLYMPIC WOMEN track and field athletes from 2016. Spoiler alert, if the 2 groups competed against each other, the HIGH SCHOOL BOYS would have won 81 medals and the OLYMPIC WOMEN would have won 6. Those are the facts. Allowing this greatly harms girl sports and that cannot happen.
3. Separating restrooms, locker rooms, and other privacy areas based on biological sex. S* It is not fair to compromise well over 90% of a school population’s privacy and expectations of decency for the sake of a select few. I have empathy for those with true gender dysphoria and I hope they seek out the professional help that they need to have a happy life. However, that cannot come at the sacrifice of others.
4. Permitting students to discuss their Christian faith with others during non-class time on school premises. S* They have the equal right to discuss their chosen faith amongst their peers as anyone else that can choose to not be a part of the conversation or have a different view of life. The key will be “non-class time”. Religious beliefs can create strong emotions and are typically very deeply embedded. However, they cannot interfere with the overall educational environment of the school/classroom.
5. Allowing school personnel to refer students to abortion providers. O* This is a very divisive moral dilemma that creates a deep divide all across the county. Moral topics like this are best left to the families and parents. Short of the current laws around reporting forms of abuse to the appropriate authorities, school personnel should be doing everything possible to keep parents updated on topics like this.
6. Requiring signed permission (opt-in) from a parent before a student may participate in sex education classes or presentations on gender identity theory. S* Parental decision making is key. I think it is fine to offer sex ed classes as an option. Some parents may not be comfortable having that conversation and may even appreciate a professional approach to that topic. Others may have a completely different view and not want their children exposed to this topic in a school setting. This is heavily a moral topic and thus the parental involvement is key.
7. Increasing transparency by requiring videos or documents shown to students [which are not part of pre-approved curriculum] be preserved for easy review by administrator and parents S* The key here is “not part of pre-approved curriculum” and “preserved for easy review”. Parents should not expect to pre-approve every piece of the curriculum. This will impede the system and thus have a negative impact on the quality of the education. If there is a video or document that arises after the curriculum is approved, but that item will better the educational experience, then it should be used and saved for review by others later.
8. Providing curricula that advocates critical race theory and its emphasis on defining people as oppressors or oppressed based on group identity or privileges. O* We will never progress as a society with this type of ideology. This will create a never-ending supply of victims and people with a victimhood mentality. We will NOT be a successful society with that mindset. We need to teach history and that includes all the good and bad ideas we have had as a human civilization. That ensures we learn from history and do not repeat our previous mistakes.
9. Requiring teachers to use "she" to describe a biological male student who identifies as a female, even if the teacher offered a reasonable alternative. O* No one gets to cherry pick how they want the English language to apply to them. That is not how any language works. Pronouns are pronouns and they must have a meaning. Besides that very fundamental reasoning, think about this from the position of a teacher and something like this is allowed, how would you ever remember the chosen pronouns for a classroom of 20 plus students? And then, how often can they change their mind on what pronoun they want to use? It just opens this Pandora's box where nothing progresses except chaos and confusion. There is no educational benefit to that.
10. Specifying in school policy that materials containing visual depictions of people engaging in sex acts or explicit written descriptions of people engaging in sex acts is not age-appropriate for the school’s curriculum and libraries. S* Materials that students have access to need to be age appropriate. What is allowable in a high school library is and should be considerably different that what you would find in the elementary school library.