Viral video of school board incident raises questions

Apr. 17—A video that is accompanied by audio of an incident between two St. Joseph Board of Education members is gaining traction on social media sites.

The video is posted along with an article on the websites of The Heartlander and The Lion. It purports to show an incident between Whitney Lanning and Isaura Garcia following a Feb. 26 board meeting at the Troester Media Center. That incident led to a charge of second-degree harassment being filed against Lanning.

Garcia also has filed a civil suit against Lanning. Court documents in that case contain excerpts of comments allegedly made by Lanning during the incident. Those excerpts match the audio in this most recent video.

Articles about the video on both websites were authored by Michael Ryan, who is listed on each as the executive editor. The Lion is a publication of the Herzog Foundation.

The audio contains what appears to be an emotional and expletive-laced rant by Lanning.

Video of the incident previously obtained by News-Press NOW and other outlets shot by school district security cameras did not contain audio. The video that accompanies the audio posted on the two websites matches that security camera footage.

However, it appears the new posts may combine audio from a separate source with the security video.

"School district security video contains no audio," said Gabe Edgar, superintendent of the St. Joseph School District.

Edgar declined to comment further on the matter.

Reached by phone, Lanning also declined to comment, but her attorney said they are trying to determine how the video and audio were combined.

"We are still looking into the video and who altered it," said Terri Lowdon, Lanning's attorney. "We will find out."

Both cases involving Lanning remain pending in court. She is set to appear on May 1 before Associate Circuit Judge Chad Gaddie in the harassment case.