Threats, fights, a recall election: Kansas City region school boards face heat of COVID decisions
They’ve been threatened. They’ve tried to conduct business over shouting audiences throwing masks. Some found signs planted on their lawns saying they were the reason children couldn’t go to school.
School board members have always dealt with more than budgets, bond issues and picking the next superintendent. Their work often drops them into the political and cultural fights of the day — from desegregation and busing to transgender rights and how slavery and racism are taught.
Now they are trying to decide how to keep students safely in classrooms as COVID-19 cases surge. And they are facing a torrent of protest and abuse.
Last school year, parents protested remote learning and pushed for their children to be allowed to play sports. Now, in the beginning of a third school year disrupted by COVID-19, school board sessions are dominated by debates over masks, vaccines and quarantine rules.
Meetings have been heated, and at times, hostile.
Outside of a Pleasant Hill school board meeting earlier this month, a fight broke out after members approved a mask mandate. The Cass County Sheriff’s Office issued citations to three people.
When the Raymore-Peculiar school board voted on a mask mandate, some members of the crowd would not stop yelling over school officials, and were eventually asked to leave the building.
Video of a Johnson County woman went viral last month after she spoke at a packed Board of Commissioners meeting regarding a mask mandate in schools. Around her neck hung a sign that read “trafficking.”
“I’m here for the children,” she said. “There is zero evidence that COVID-19 exists in the world. ... This is a plandemic. Fake virus. Bioweapon jab. Fake president. You will not experiment on my children. It’s always been about the children. We know you’re coming for the children. We will not comply.”
Opponents of mandates also have disrupted meetings that had nothing to do with masks or COVID-19. On Monday night, a Johnson County Charter Commission meeting was canceled after less than ten minutes when members of the crowd refused to wear masks and abide by social distancing rules. After the meeting ended, angry crowd members chanted “USA, USA!”
Joe Beveridge, the Olathe school board president, said in a typical year, board meetings were lightly attended, and “we’d rarely have any public comments.”
But this is no typical year.
In one Kansas town, a school board member is facing a recall election after she voted in favor of a mask mandate.
“I am not the only board member that they attempted to recall. I am the only one they were successful to recall. And it’s all based on the fact they did not like my vote for the mask requirement,” said Amy Sudbeck, a member of the Nemaha Central school board. The district, headquartered in Seneca, is about two hours northwest of Kansas City.
American flags have been flown. Masks have been thrown. And misinformation has run rampant.
“We have moved some meetings to the gymnasium because we’ve expected large crowds. And things have gotten heated. We’ve heard threats from people saying that ‘we’re working in the background to remove all of you from your seats,’” Sudbeck said. “They’ve showed us the Bible and slammed their fists, and interrupted and talked over us.”
Some board members, many of whom declined to speak with The Star on the record, said they had received threats against themselves and their families.
One member had police officers check on their home.
Beveridge said that last year, all of the Olathe school board members walked out of their homes to find signs in their yards saying they were the reason for children not being in school.
“Some board members felt like that crossed a line, coming to our house and putting signs in our yard,” he said.
Board members across the country describe a similar environment. Many have resigned or reconsidered their roles. Before stepping down, one Nevada board member said he had suicidal thoughts due to bullying and threats. In Wisconsin, Oconomowoc Area School Board member Rick Grothaus said in his resignation letter that the board’s work had become “toxic and impossible to do.”
In Brownsburg, Indiana, flyers circulated showing men in masks holding guns and calling school board members child abusers. The flyers, which appeared after the school board approved a mandate, included photos of board members and their addresses.
In Vail, Arizona, speakers criticized board members over masks, vaccines and discussions of race in schools — even though the board had no plans to discuss any of the topics. “It’s my constitutional right to be as mean as I want to you guys,” one woman said.
And pressure is building in the Kansas City suburbs as opponents of pandemic health orders file lawsuits against districts and their school boards. In Missouri, that includes a class action suit from Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who is seeking to block Missouri school districts from mandating masks.
“We understand that when we’re dealing with people’s children, it’s a tense and tough topic. But I try to understand that everyone is fighting for what’s best for their family and kids,” Beveridge said. “There’s a lot of tension on every side of the issue. The school year starts and that bubbles up at board meetings. It did this year and last year. But once we get into school, we remember the focus is the kids.”
“Why am I doing this?”
Some board members told The Star that the charged climate has made their job increasingly difficult.
“There have been times where I’ve felt like, ‘why am I doing this?’ It’s a volunteer position,” Sudbeck said. “But I’m not here to listen to political agendas. I’m motivated by my kids and the other kids in (the district). The students have all been great. They have persevered and pushed forward, and so will I.”
Public health experts agree that masks are a safe, effective and reasonable tool to help prevent transmission of COVID-19. They are especially important in schools, as students return to classrooms full time and those under the age of 12 are not yet eligible for the vaccine.
Many parents have joined anti-mask groups, some of which have organized rallies with a lineup of conservative speakers. They have encouraged parents to join lawsuits against school districts. They have sold T-shirts and signs. And they’ve asked children to defy their schools’ mandates and take off their masks during class.
Parents have packed board meetings and protested outside of them, some carrying signs that go as far as comparing mask mandates to child abuse or genocide. Some have even made comparisons to the Holocaust, which were quickly condemned as antisemitic. A smaller minority have also used their time to debate how race and the history of slavery is taught in school, or to oppose diversity and equity initiatives in general.
Families on the other end of the political spectrum have also joined together, forming social media groups in support of mitigation strategies and pushing for districts to release more COVID-19 data. They, too, have made attempts at filling the seats at board meetings to have their voices heard.
Last week, the Raymore-Peculiar district reversed its decision on masks, making them optional. The board voted 4-1 to continue mandating masks, but officials said the motion needed a super majority to pass, and two board members were absent. Paul Coffman was the only “no” vote.
Before the vote, Coffman called the debate on masks a “spiritual battle.”
“It’s not the school board against you. It’s not you against the teachers. It’s not the students against each other,” Coffman told parents in the crowd.
He pleaded with parents to be civil, saying that the board had received messages “accusing us of being cowards” and “wanting us to step down.”
“Who would ever (have) thought that this would separate us? This would divide us. This would cause fist fights in parking lots. … Don’t let this divide us. We’re all on the same team. … We do not get paid anything to do this. We do this because we love our community. We love our kids. We want the best for this school district.”
In the Lee’s Summit district, board president Ryan Murdock said, “We have definitely received some messages that I have found inappropriate and concerning.”
“Disagreement is to be expected in some cases, but we must be able to have respectful conversations. As a board member, I am disheartened when comments rise to a level that prevent meetings from continuing in a safe, productive manner but these limited occurrences have also made me grateful for those who engage in respectful discourse, including and especially when we are discussing tough issues.”
Other school board members told The Star that residents have yelled at them to quit their positions and threatened them with recall votes. In many states, board members who have not resigned are facing recall efforts.
Sudbeck is the first in Kansas, according to Ballotpedia, which has tracked 64 school board recall efforts against 165 board members this year. She was appointed to a seat on the school board last year, and is seeking a full term in November.
But on Nov. 2, the ballot also will include the question of whether to recall Sudbeck. The petition only needed three signatures, a number based on the low turnout when the seat was last up for election, said DeAnn Koch, deputy elections officer with Nemaha County.
Patrons upset over the mask mandate secured eight signatures on the recall petition.
Sudbeck said she remains dedicated to her duty on the school board. And she hopes that the boiling political tensions don’t prevent more people from stepping up to serve.
“I know this is a crazy time we’re living in, and that can really dissuade people from wanting to be involved,” Sudbeck said. “It’s especially difficult for people who aren’t in the loud minority that exists. But people have to be involved. That’s the only way to keep pushing forward.”
Includes reporting by The Associated Press.
