In March 2023, the Mayor of College Park, Patrick Wojahn, was arrested and charged with 40 counts of possession of child pornography & 40 counts of possession with the intent to distribute. He subsequently resigned from his position.
Patrick was well known and supported in the ever tight circle of MD Democrats and the MD Democrat Party. It wasn’t long until pictures of him emerged, one featuring current County Council President Evan Glass.
There were multiple accounts that posted on Twitter asking Evan Glass to make a statement, clarifying not only his relationship with Patrick, but also condemning the actions Patrick was accused of. Evan stayed silent. He did not issue a public statement on any medium. In fact, all of the county council stayed silent. Of course, this is the same group of people monitoring injustices and crimes across the country and quickly expressing their outrage and disapproval. Somehow, the arrest of a prominent mayor in MD, with ties to local politicians didn’t make the list.
It is yet to be seen if Patrick will be found guilty of his crimes, but the charges are numerous.
Fast forward 3 months, and Evan Glass has published a new contest he is sponsoring during Pride Month.
The contest is targeted to minors at MCPS public high schools, and is focused on (taken from the website):
Write an essay or poem (maximum 250 words) about the importance of LGBTQ representation in your community, government, sports, books, movies or television. Please share an example of how someone from the LGBTQ+ community made you feel represented and why it is important that we stay visible to combat hate.
Every child that writes what is deemed a “quality” submission gets to receive 2 SSL hours, with the first-place winner receiving $100, the second place $50, and third $25. ALL applicants however receive an invitation to have a pizza party with Councilmember Evan Glass.
The idea of holding a poetry contest in support of any recognition month is not bad. However, there are several alarming parts of this contest.
The instructions for the contest emphasize in large bold red lettering TWO times the requirement that all students should NOT use their MCPS email.
Instead, students must use a personal email address, in addition to their full name. They are also required to provide their pronouns.
This requirement immediately provides Evan, his staff, and anyone else associated with the contest the ability to look up the social media accounts of any of the submissions, or reach out directly to an applicant privately via email. In fact, the way the form is designed, it even self-facilitates the social identify if the user has a google account.
Upon the deadline, all submissions will then be sent to the Office of Councilmember Evan Glass, in essence providing a full directory of children, along with their personal contact information that can easily be used to find and identify them on social media.
Should this be alarming? It most definitely should raise red flags given Evan’s purposeful and concerted effort to not clarify his relationship with a locally charged pedophile, or even to condemn the actions of the accused as wrong. One could say that this contest provides a direct pipeline of youth (which Evan Glass reports having a high level of depression) along with their private contact information, to a group of unknown people who may or may not use the information legally. It then encourages all of these people to come to a party. How can this not be viewed as a clever “white van”.
Another feature of the contest is that in submitting a poem, the submitter uses all rights to the submission.
Entries will become the sole property of MCG. MCG may publicly use the Entries online, in print, and in other communications.
Evan owes the community a better understanding of his views of Patrick’s behavior. He also needs to clarify exactly the extent of his relationship with Patrick. Were they friends? Did they hang out together? Was it merely a political association? Was Evan at all aware of the actions Patrick has been accused of?
Until then, parents of high school students should be aware of the exposure to their child by adults such a contest allows.
