Texas School Board Attempts to Silence Conservative Members With ‘Naked Political Hit Job’
Two conservative members of the Round Rock, Texas Independent School District Board of Trustees have been targeted by five other board members to censure their views about critical race theory and other controversial subjects, media outlets have reported.
The Round Rock ISD Board voted to agree to place on a meeting agenda two censure resolutions against colleagues Mary Bone and Danielle Weston after the pair complained that the school district had violated the Texas Open Meetings Act by keeping members of the public out of a volatile school board meeting on Sept. 14. The resolutions were put forth only days after two fathers were arrested for allegedly disrupting school board meetings, including the one on Sept. 14.
“The vicious censure resolutions to trip Trustee Mary Bone and me of the powers and duties bestowed upon us by the voters is a naked political hit job,” Weston told Fox News. “The majority of the board is diverting taxpayer dollars and manpower away from students and teachers to destroy our reputations and inflict financial pain.”
In her ruling, Lambeth said that without the restraining order, there was “a substantial threat of irreparable harm to the reputations and abilities of Bone and Weston to fulfill their obligations as trustees.”
Soon after the Sept. 14 meeting, Weston and Bone filed a lawsuit to prevent voting on the resolutions. A few hours before the Sept. 22 school board meeting, Judge Betsy Lambeth granted a temporary restraining order to block the school board’s move. Attorneys for Weir and the other trustees filed a motion challenging the court’s jurisdiction and the hearing on that is scheduled for Dec. 22.
Prior to the Sept. 14 meeting, Round Rock ISD stationed police officers at the doors to prevent members of the public from entering. More than 50,000 students attend the dozens of schools in the Round Rock District, including some of the largest high schools in Texas.
“The censure resolutions would strip us of the powers and duties bestowed upon us by the voters and would violate the law,” Weston told Fox News. “All we want is for the political persecution we are enduring to stop. Resources, time, money and manpower of the board of trustees should only be expended on the education of students, not political attacks on trustees.”
One of the two fathers arrested in the Sept. 14 meeting, Jeremy Story, a minister and father of seven, produced evidence that the board had covered up an alleged assault by Round Rock ISD Superintendent Hafedh Azaiez against a mistress. Chronicles Magazine reported that Story was physically prevented from finishing his remarks by police officers operating under orders from the school board president and the superintendent. {eoa}
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