Parents of students in the Oakley Union Elementary School District in the United States were furious after school board members mocked them during an online meeting.
Unaware their conversation was public, district trustees in Oakley, California, suggested that parents eager for schools to reopen merely wanted “their babysitters back,” comments which eventually resulted in their resignation.
The New York Times reported that the board members had spent two minutes mocking parents, suggesting they wanted teachers back in school so they could have “their babysitters back and go back to smoking marijuana.”
The entire time, parents who had logged in for the regular twice-monthly meeting of the board had been listening.
The response to the board members’ comments was swift and furious, another reminder of the rage and anguish many parents are feeling as school closures drag into the spring.
Three days after the negative remarks, more than 6,600 people had signed a petition that threatened to recall the trustees if they did not resign.
As thousands of people signed an online petition calling for the resignation of all the four board members, who were heard laughing and jeering at parents, other voices also joined in demanding they stepped down.
The mayor of Oakley, Sue Higgins, said that although she had no jurisdiction over the Oakley Union Elementary School District, she called on board members to resign, according to the New York Times, quoting a local news site, East County Today.
Days later, the district superintendent in Oakley, Greg D. Hetrick, announced that all the four members, including the president, Lisa Brizendine, had resigned from the board of trustees. A fifth member had stepped down from the board in January, leaving the board entirely without trustees.
Three members, Kim Beede, Richie Masadas and Erica Ippolito, said in a statement that they “deeply regret the comments” and were resigning to “help facilitate the healing process.”
“As trustees, we realize it is our responsibility to model the conduct that we expect of our students and staff, and it is our obligation to build confidence in district leadership,” they said in the statement, which was included in the letter announcing the resignations.
“Our comments failed you in both regards, and for this we offer our sincerest apology,” the members said.
The district has more than 470 employees and about 5,000 students in nine elementary and middle schools throughout Oakley, a city of about 42,000 people 40 miles northeast of Oakland.
Students in the district have been learning remotely since last March and, as in other parts of the country, parents are eager for information about their schools’ plans to return to in-person learning.
Before the meeting, they had submitted letters to the board asking for more transparency, expressing their frustration and voicing concerns that their children were suffering as a result of remote learning.
“Parents were tuned in to learn if we will be sending our kids back to school soon and if not, why,” the petition stated. “There has been a lack of communication from the board and this was the first communication we heard.”
