- April 19, 2024
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Updated 11 a.m. June 19
Chairwoman Janet McDonald’s controversial retweets drew angry and frustrated public comments at the June 16 School Board meeting, leading board member Colleen Conklin to encourage McDonald to acknowledge that the tweets were offensive to some in the community, and leading board member Andy Dance to say that this meeting represented the low point in his years as an elected official.
McDonald, who said in the beginning of the meeting that she had felt cyberbullied on social media, also refused to allow a Flagler Palm Coast High School student, Jack Petocz, to read a statement directed toward her, saying she felt it was inappropriate to take time away from the board for a personal matter. She said she was doing her best to follow the rules of how the meeting should be run, in her role as chairwoman.
"Look in the mirror and say, ‘I’ll remove myself from this problem and allow the school district to move on and grow.’”
ABBEY COOKE, teacher, calling for Janet McDonald's resignation
“It’s really important to go along with our policies,” she said, remaining calm throughout the meeting. “I was trying to honor that. … As a public official, I take my hits, and I’m absolutely fair game … but I, as an individual, should not take up the time and attention of this board.”
She said the public comment rules do not allow for conversation, only one-way speech. “It doesn’t promote understanding,” she said.
Petocz later returned to the microphone and gave his full comments, omitting McDonald’s name.
“Instead of using their platform to speak out against … hate, a member of the Flagler County School Board has only amplified and supported discriminatory voices,” Petocz said. He pointed out McDonald’s retweets “promoting conspiracy theories regarding vaccines and COVID-19 pandemic, homophobia, criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement.”
Among McDonald's retweets that were upsetting to Petocz was one that said, “It’s easier to come out as gay than come out as a Trump supporter,” and another that said, “This pandemic was a planned, politically motivated event to overthrow the government.”
“Despite what the member of the board may believe, it is not easier to come out as gay than to support Donald Trump,” Petocz said, adding that the suicide rate among LGBTQ+ teens is “exceptionally high.”
He indirectly told McDonald she should resign. “We do not want someone who holds these views on our School Board,” he said.
McDonald politely apologized to Petocz when she asked him to stop speaking the first time he attempted to read his prepared statement. She apologized again when he read the comment in full at the concluding public comment segment.
“I so appreciate your expertise to revise your message so that it was more universal,” she said to Petocz in her final comments of the night. “Thank you very much. So if at any point … if you want to connect directly, I am more than open to doing that, because that’s what Flagler Schools does: They build bridges, they make opportunities, and they’re working for everyone.”
Abbey Cooke, a teacher in Flagler Schools and an activist supporting the LGBTQ+ community, echoed Petocz’s call for McDonald to resign.
“As elected officials that represent our School Board, what you do on social media does matter,” she said. “And when rhetoric and conspiracy theories and just outdated science — well, lack of science — is being shared, that represents our school district and makes us look foolish and ridiculous. … If this is a problem, and this is going to keep coming every month — because it will — then maybe look in the mirror and say, ‘I’ll remove myself from this problem and allow the school district to move on and grow.’”
McDonald defended her tweets that challenge the validity of vaccines.
“What I send out on vaccines is not bogus science,” she said toward the end of the meeting. “I would like you to check out several of the references I’ve given you. There is very important information in the world right now about vaccines, and it’s important since this is something that you ingest, you should be aware. … My interest in informing the public is so you can research it for yourself.”
McDonald also said some of her tweets had been misinterpreted.
“I endorse one race — the human race,” McDonald said. “We are all one. We are all the same energy that powers everything on the planet, and the only way we can work together is through conversation, through understanding what the person means.” She said tweets are “frivolous … Some are wonderful, some are easily misunderstood."
“What I send out on vaccines is not bogus science. … My interest in informing the public is so you can research it for yourself.”
JANET McDONALD, School Board chairwoman
Cooke also said the recent Supreme Court ruling should give the School Board enough reason to revisit its April 21 decision not to extend explicit protection for gender identity in its nondiscrimination clause. (Conklin was the dissenting vote; she supported adding gender identity to the protected list.)
Jennifer Bertrand is the mother of a transgender boy in Flagler Schools, and she said in a public comment June 16 that her son had been allowed to be bullied in class and called mentally ill by another member of the public during a School Board meeting.
“This board did nothing to stop them,” she said. “I respectfully submit that Flagler County Schools, whom I believe has a zero-tolerance bullying policy, has an immense problem with bullying, and, sadly it seems to be in large part the adults. … You claim to protect all of our children. It’s time to step up and do it.”
"Flagler County Schools has an immense problem with bullying. ... You claim to protect all of our children. It’s time to step up and do it.”
JENNIFER BERTRAND
School Board member Andy Dance was somber in his closing comments. He said he has reflected and prayed a great deal in recent weeks, particularly with regard to racial unrest.
“I’m recommitting myself to be a better listener,” he said.
He then thanked Petocz for returning to the microphone to deliver his comments to the board, and he apologized that he had been “cut off earlier.”
“Tonight was kind of a low point for me on the board,” he said. “It was tough. I think there’s a fine line between free speech and our board rules. As an elected official … any comments that were reflected to me, I sit and take them. I’m the elected official; that’s what I signed up for.”
He said the rules that forbid directing comments to individuals were meant to protect staff and students, not elected board members.
“As a board, based on tonight, we may have to go back and review our processes,” he said. “We need to … define what is acceptable and what’s not.”
Conklin agreed with Dance that the board should revisit its rules, so as not to quash public comment.
“If we have a member of the public coming and speaking, we have to honor that moving forward,” she said. “ … Civil discourse is meant to stretch us and give us an opportunity to learn from each other.
Like Dance, Conklin was somber.
“I’m saddened by the tenor of not just our board meeting this evening, but just what’s happening in our country right now,” she said. “And I think the ability to have empathy is so critical right now.”
Conklin defended McDonald from criticism, saying that her Twitter account “does not reflect the person that I have worked with.” However, she said, “There is an opportunity to acknowledge that those tweets were very offensive to some in the community, and they were. They just were.”
Editor's Note: This story originally had a sidebar that said Randy Bertrand was criticizing Janet McDonald for blocking him on Twitter, but that was incorrect. He was referring to Maria Barbosa blocking him on Facebook. The story has been corrected.
Editor's Note: According to marktwainstudies.com, the quote that Janet McDonald attributed to Mark Twain was actually never said by Mark Twain. The sidebar has been amended.
