The entire board of directors of a Northern California school district resigned after making inappropriate comments about parents during a Zoom call that was unknowingly broadcast to the public.
Oakley Union Elementary School District Superintendent Greg Hetrick in a letter The district’s families on Friday announced the resignation of the board members after their Wednesday meeting, part of which was taped and posted on YouTube.
The Oakley Union school district board, which serves about 5,000 students just east of San Francisco, in a Zoom call initially thought the meeting was not yet open to the public, said ABC news
In the conversation, some of which used to be posted on Twitter by NBC News Bay Area reporter Bigad Shabad, trustee Kim Beede could be heard saying, “Are we alone?” before adding, “B —- if you’re gonna call me out, I’m gonna fuck you.”
1) Then officials at the Oakley Union Elem. The school district thought they had a private meeting, they used blasphemy to insult and threaten parents upset by the long-term school closures in the district.
Here they realized their MTG was broadcast to the public.
“Oh oh.” pic.twitter.com/OXbHWq9FMy
– Bigad Shaban (@BigadShaban) February 18, 2021
The chair of the school board, Lisa Brizendine, went on to describe the criticism they have received in letters from parents urging schools to return to the personal classrooms. The primary school district is currently on only allow distance learning amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Brizendine said during the interview, “They forget there are real people on the other side of the letters they write,” then added, “It’s a real shame they want to choose us because they want their babysitters back . “
Another school board member, Richie Masadas, then said that his brother had a delivery service for medical marijuana and that his main customers were parents with school-aged children.
“If you got your kids home, stop smoking,” he added.
Beede could eventually be heard saying, “Uh-oh. We now have the meeting open to the public.”
“Nuh-uh,” Brezendine replied, after which the meeting was switched to private.
At the end of the meeting, Brezendine apologized for the group’s previous comments, saying, “We had a private conversation because at the time we were really struggling with all the responses on the board, because we so badly want what’s best for the kids.”
Herrick also released a statement apologizing for the incident, calling members’ comments “truly inappropriate,” and announced to the community on Friday that the board had resigned.
The letter to the families of the school district included a statement from Beede, Masadas and fellow member Erica Ippolito, who wrote that they “ deeply regret the comments made ” and that they did not live up to their “ responsibility to model the behaviors we see from our students and staff, ‘and their’ obligation to build trust in district leadership ‘.