Profanity, screaming, threats: Hampton Roads school boards become battleground [View all]
Shortly after she arrived at her first school board meeting, Jessica Miley watched a man with his hand on the knife in his waistband scream expletives at a security officer.
She was still wiping away tears when the meeting started. Outside, a crowd kept from entering because of COVID protocols flanked the entrance and chanted let us in.
After Miley finished speaking, security insisted on walking her to her car. The officer shone his flashlight on her tires to check for tampering. He told the mother of two to get in her car, lock the doors, turn on the headlights and waste no time leaving. Thats exactly what she did.
Is this normal, she wondered? At a school board meeting?
In many places, it is now. What before the pandemic was an often overlooked part of civic life is back at the forefront of the culture wars: Fights over reopening turned into fights over masks and vaccines, all of that happening simultaneously to districts and boards embrace of efforts to make schools more equitable places after George Floyds murder.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/profanity-screaming-threats-hampton-roads-170300667.html