Months after a school board candidate entered State High, PAC calls for censure of board member

Months after a school board candidate entered State High without permission, the incident is still causing controversy, with several people calling for one board member’s censure or resignation.

At a Monday night meeting, United 4 SCASD candidate Nathan Bish and three other community members spoke during public comment about surveillance video published in a Centre Daily Times story about school board candidate Megan Layng and her husband, Ken Layng, entering State High without permission.

School board member Peter Buck told the CDT in May that the Layngs took photographs of library books before being escorted out of the building, and that Superintendent Curtis Johnson sent surveillance video to board members and asked for help identifying the pair.

A Right to Know request revealed that Buck shared the video with the press, United 4 SCASD wrote in a press release on Tuesday.

“In taking this action, Dr. Buck violated his fiduciary duty to protect the confidentiality of SCASD non-public information and his responsibility to maintain a secure school environment,” the press release states.

When Layng entered the school on April 10, she had been a member of the United 4 SCASD group but by April 13 any mention of Layng had been removed from the website. Neither Layng nor United 4 SCASD offered any public explanation for Layng’s departure from the slate.

In a statement on her Facebook in May, Layng said she entered the building on a prayer walk and took pictures of library books due to “residents expressing concern about educational content.”

United 4 SCASD said the security footage disclosed information about the district’s security protocols and its release put students at risk.

“Given his betrayal of the community’s trust, we request that SCASD School Board President Jackie Huff and the entire board take immediate action to censure Peter Buck,” United 4 SCASD wrote.

In a statement, the board said it chose not to release the video due to similar security concerns but had no legal basis to remove the board member who shared it.

“Board members separately discussed these events, conferred with the District’s solicitor, and determined that the Board member who released the video did not violate any statute, rule, or regulation,” the board wrote.

During the meeting, Buck stated that he had no intentions of resigning from his position and reaffirmed his commitment to the community.

“They’re trying to change the subject because they don’t want to talk about book bans and their attacks on libraries and their attacks on teachers and the press,” Buck said. “They want to target an individual school member who did the right thing so they don’t have to fess up to doing the wrong thing.”

The board’s statement pointed to additional measures put in place at State High since the April incident, including “high-profile no trespassing signs” and a security guard stationed at the rear office entrance after school.

“We commend our teachers, security staff, and School Resource Officer for acting quickly to address the incident and take the necessary precautions to protect our students from any disruption,” the statement read.