La Mesa-Spring Valley School Board Member Charda Bell-Fontenot became antagonistic toward fellow board members in video board meeting and claimed their efforts to reopen schools reflected their “White Supremacy”
Just days after the entire school board of Oakley Union Elementary School District was forced to resign after claiming parents who want schools reopened just “want their babysitters back,” another controversial video has surfaced of a school board member claiming any effort to reopen schools was “racist” and reflected “white supremacy.”
On February 23, the La Mesa/Spring Valley School District Board met virtually using zoom video. When the issue of reopening schools came up, Board Member Charda Bell-Fontenot became agitated and declared “That seems like a very white supremacist ideology to force people to comply with…you know…to conform…just letting you know…I don’t want to be part of forcing anybody to do anything they don’t want to do - that’s what slavery is.”
Bell-Fontenot urged the board to not act on the issue of reopening schools during the meeting, declaring “we don’t have to give anybody any date…we do not have to make a decision today.”
When a fellow board member shared survey results showing 70-80 percent of parents favored reopening schools, Bell-Fontenot dismissed the notion that they survey was representative by asking “Who are the 70-80 percent and where are they? Which school site? Which language group?”
Bell-Fontenot seemed surprised when other board members informed her that the meeting was being recorded.
News of the video first broke on the DeMaio Report on NewsRadio 600 KOGO. Carl DeMaio called for Bell-Fontenot to resign as a school board member immediately.
“The only racism I see here is coming directly from Bell-Fontenot for claiming only white people want to have their kids go back to school as soon as possible,” said DeMaio. “It is absolutely shameful that Bell-Fontenot is screaming ‘racism’ as a way to try to block the reopening of schools at a time when the data all shows that minority students are disproportionately impacted by school closures,” DeMaio concluded.
Watch to the video below.
**Photo Credit: Getty Images