Agenda - 09-06-2022; 8-a - Minutes

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18 1 political agenda against parents that wanted to have a respectful protest, a student-led protest, 2 to protest spectator rights to go into football games. She said that the reason that the school 3 board wanted to shut that down is because there was a group of students wanted to go and the 4 students had a certain political affiliation they didn't agree with, so the other side of the political 5 affiliation showed up, and they are the ones embedded with the school board, to try to push this 6 hate resolution. She said there were no crimes committed and this was done peacefully. She 7 said the protest was in October and this is an attempt from the school board to silence the 8 parents. She said that parents have tried to bring several atrocities to their attention. She said 9 they have brought concerns of pornography in books and school grades. She asked if the 10 commissioners knew that Orange County is the third highest ranked school system in the state 11 of North Carolina on per pupil spending. She said they spend $20,000 more per student and 12 their graduation rates are 3% lower, but they're worried about protests on the side of the road 13 instead of the education of children. She said they are watching and will pay close attention. 14 She said that citizens are holding them accountable and that she does not agree with the 15 attorney's assessment on the infringement of their free speech. She said to tread lightly on the 16 vote and to honor their country. 17 Gretchen Schmid said 1,000 feet is not on school property and not part of non-public 18 forum. She said that the impetus to regulate freedoms of speech seems to have been inspired 19 by claims of illegal activity and endangerment of students near school property. She said these 20 claims are being made from a school board where none of its members were present, except for 21 one and that she was ironically chased by them as they were yelling fascist at her while she was 22 passing out a small card that had information about a parent research project. She said there 23 are 700 people and counting, who have thanked OCS Truth for parents gathering and 24 disseminating that information. She said that society has a system for dealing with law breakers 25 and there have been none in the stories that have been shared. She said it is important to ask 26 why parents and community members were coming out to exercise their First Amendment rights 27 in the first place. She said that it is because they do not feel safe sending children to school 28 where there are assignments describing illicit, abusive, and erotic sexual behaviors and acts. 29 She said that parents do not feel safe that their child's private medical information is not shared 30 school wide, and then they are being bullied, intimidated, and ostracized by staff and peers 31 when personal information has been shared. She said that parents to not feel safe when their 32 children are attempting to learn in a polarized environment, dressed in emblems and symbols of 33 actual events that have led to billions of dollars of damage and the destruction of private and 34 public property as well as documented attacks on individuals, some of which ended in death. 35 She said that parents do not feel safe sending their kids to a place where they are attempting to 36 learn in an environment where content depicting rape, incest in children, providing sexual acts 37 for adults are displayed in a prominent spot on a library shelf. She said that parents do not feel 38 safe when their children are being shoved in the hall and into lockers after they have expressed 39 religious beliefs. She said that parents came out in force as soon as the school board meetings 40 were happening live again. She said that the OCS school board has established a reputation of 41 distancing itself from the people and suppressing their attempts at expressing their beliefs. She 42 said that it is imperative this body hold to the supreme law of the land. She said that it was said 43 at the last meeting that they are not trying to control but rather to restrict. She said that the 44 definition of restrict is to prohibit and that whether it is restrict or control, both are restricting of 45 freedoms of speech. 46 Courtney Geels said she is the Republican Nominee for US Congress District 4. She 47 said she grew up in Hillsborough and went through the school system of Orange County. She 48 said she is appalled at the direction this Board is going. She said this ordinance is targeting 49 parents. She said that if she is elected, if she disagrees with a constituent, she will still listen to 50 them. She said they are working against a group of their own constituents if this regulation is 51 passed. She said they are all aware of the events that led up to the May elections. She said