Lakota board meets amid restraining order, rancor

UPDATE, Oct. 3: Lakota Local School District Board of Education members Isaac Adi and Darbi Boddy did not address each other at the Monday meeting.

Chair Lynda O’Conner said during closing comments she was grateful to have a meeting focused on student achievement and not “witch hunts.”

Previous reporting: A Greater Cincinnati school board will meet Monday night for the first time since a judge ordered one board member not to be within 500 feet of another board member,

Butler County Common Pleas Court Judge J. Gregory Howard granted a civil stalking protection order to Lakota Local Schools board member Isaac Adi against fellow board member Darbi Boddy on Sept. 20.

Butler County Magistrate H. Matthew Reed found that Boddy knowingly caused Adi mental distress with her behavior. The order is effective for two years. Boddy has appealed the decision and can attend school board meetings during the appeals process, a judge declared Thursday.

"I don't have anything to say now," Adi told The Enquirer when asked Friday if he plans to attend the Monday night meeting.

How did we get here?

Adi and Boddy campaigned together in the 2021 school board election. In her time on the board, Boddy has been a solitary "no" vote and a source of controversy during many school board meetings. She has posted a link to a pornographic website on her Facebook page, made unannounced visits to Lakota's schools and compared suicide prevention in schools to "the Nazi handbook."

“Rather than try to work through their differences or respect (Adi’s) possible change of beliefs, (Boddy) took every opportunity to exert pressure, bully, and, at times, punish (Adi) by embarrassing him in front of others,” Reed said in court documents.

Ohio's menacing by stalking law states that "no person by engaging in a pattern of conduct shall knowingly cause another person to believe that the offender will cause physical harm to the other person ... or cause mental distress to the other person." The law defines a pattern of conduct as "two or more actions or incidents closely related in time."

'Verbal assault' at a Florida conference

In his petition for the protection order, Adi described three incidents at an April conference both school board members attended in Florida, as well as one incident after a school board meeting in June.

Adi said Boddy came to his table during lunch at the Florida conference, stood behind him and yelled "a false allegation" while pointing at him. Later, while Adi was talking to other attendees in the hallway, Boddy came up behind him and yelled again, he said. Adi said Boddy later grabbed the microphone from a presenter during a session to harass him.

Melody Buldoc, another conference attendee, said in a written account attached to Adi's petition that as the speaker was taking questions, Boddy "unleashed a verbal assault" on Adi that she read from her cell phone.

"She accused him of not being a conservative and of supporting and protecting a pedophile, along with a litany of other things," Buldoc said.

Boddy repeatedly accused former superintendent Matt Miller of inappropriate sexual conduct and fantasies earlier this year. Miller was cleared by two separate investigations, one by the Butler County Sheriff's Office and one by a private investigator hired by the school board.

Reed said in court documents when Boddy was asked about the script she read in Florida, she "appeared happy to retrieve her phone so that she could once again read from the script and accuse (Adi) of supporting a pedophile.”

Why were Adi and Boddy at the conference?

Adi said in his petition that the school board sponsored his and Boddy's attendance at the conference, which was hosted by the Leadership Institute.

The Leadership Institute is a nonprofit organization with a mission that includes preparing "conservatives all across America to challenge the left's control over the nation's locally elected school boards," according to its website. The organization partners with Moms for Liberty, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled a far-right extremist group.

John Price, an attorney with the Ohio School Boards Association, said Ohio law allows for school board members to expense professional development programs and the decision to authorize that use of funds is typically made at the local school board level.

"All boards of education are given pretty wide latitude in determining what's an appropriate use of funds," Price said.

Betsy Fuller, a spokesperson for the school district, told The Enquirer via email the district pays for conferences board members attend for professional development, including the Leadership Institute conference Boddy and Adi attended.

What happened during school board meetings?

Adi said after the June 13 school board meeting he waited before leaving to avoid being alone with Boddy. He said as he was leaving, Boddy came back into the building, got in his face and started recording him with her cell phone.

Video of the encounter appears to show Adi swatting Boddy's phone away from him. Boddy filed a police report about the incident four days later, accusing Adi of assault. The Butler County Sheriff's Office dropped the investigation and confirmed that prosecutors don't believe the incident was an assault.

Board members Julie Shaffer and Lynda O’Connor served as witnesses for Adi at the hearing for the protection order.

Reed said in court documents that during committee hearings the school board held Aug. 18, Adi stepped out to take a work call and Boddy badgered him about his absence and appeared to start recording him on her phone. Reed said according to witnesses, Adi was in tears and shaking at this point.

"(Adi) decided to leave the meeting and he was followed by his colleague, O'Connor. She recalled him indicating that he was going to go to the hospital and that she was so concerned for his well-being that she did not feel it safe for him to leave on his own," Reed said.

Boddy appeals the protection order

Reed said in court documents Boddy argued that granting Adi the protection order would disenfranchise her constituents.

“The Court however finds that it was, and is, the behavior of Boddy that has disenfranchised her constituents," Reed said.

Boddy appealed the judgment and asked to be allowed to attend school board meetings during the appeals. She argued her actions were political speech and attempts to fulfill her responsibility to her constituents.

Adi asked the court to strike Boddy's request to attend school board meetings in a court filing on Sept. 28, arguing the common pleas court no longer has jurisdiction over the case since Boddy appealed the decision to a higher court.

Howard decided Boddy may attend school board meetings while her appeal is being decided. She cannot communicate with Adi unless necessary during school board meeting business and she must wait five minutes after Adi leaves before she leaves, according to the decision.

What happens next?

The Lakota school board will have a listening session and regular meeting starting at 5:30 p.m. in the Lakota East Freshman Auditorium. The school board decided in March to hold listening sessions before meetings instead of public comment during meetings.

Meetings are broadcast on the West Chester Cable public access channels and posted on the board's website.

Erin Glynn is the watchdog reporter for Butler, Warren and Clermont counties through the Report For America program. The Enquirer needs local donors to help fund her grant-funded position. If you want to support Glynn's work, you can donate to her Report For America position at this website or email her editor Carl Weiser at cweiser@enquirer.com to find out how you can help fund her work. 

Do you know something she should know? Send her a note at eglynn@enquirer.com and follow her on Twitter at @ee_glynn.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: What happened at Lakota board meeting Monday night