‘So sad.’ Unruly crowd, hecklers force Richland School Board president to recess meeting
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Richland School Board Recall Effort
A high-profile group of voters filed to recall board members Semi Bird, Audra Byrd and Kari Williams after their controversial vote to make face masks optional.
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A group of loud and irate attendees nearly derailed Tuesday night’s Richland School Board meeting.
President Jill Oldson ultimately called for a 5-minute recess after the group became upset over the board’s new time limits on commenting to the board.
The school board in recent months has placed restrictions on its public comment period in an effort to keep meetings to a manageable length.
It wasn’t uncommon for some meetings with a 6:30 p.m. start time to stretch on to 11 p.m.
Under the revised system, public commenters are allowed 2 minutes each to speak, with the first 15 minutes set aside for those attending in-person and the last 15 for people on Zoom. All comments were cut off after 30 minutes.
Community members and parents can still send the board public comments through email.
Kat Espinda, a Richland mother and vocal critic of the board, approached the board table during the transition to online comments and accused Oldson of not wanting her to speak, also calling her a coward.
That’s when Oldson gaveled a short recess to “regain control of this room, on both sides,” she said.
The disruption came shortly after three in-person commenters told the board they were against the district paying the attorney costs to defend three of its board members from a recall challenge.
The board ultimately agreed later that night to pay the legal fees if a judge determines the petitions don’t meet the Washington state’s standard for a recall vote. Recall organizers allege Semi Bird, Kari Williams and Audra Byrd broke the law by violating the indoor COVID mask mandate and state open meetings law, among other issues.
“There were no problems or heckling at all until Jill was shutting the parents down,” Espinda said in an email Thursday. “There were a good eight to 10 parents, including myself, who still needed to speak.”
On Tuesday, board members Audra Byrd and Semi Bird attempted to ease the tension.
“I’m just going to ask, if you guys are open to it: Can we finish the school board meeting? Because what’s going to happen is there’s going to be an option to take it to Zoom, which means you guys wasted your time being here,” Bird said.
“It’s not my choice, I’m not the board president,” he added.
After some arguing that lasted a few minutes, Oldson reconvened the meeting with the intention of going on to Zoom commenters.
“The thing that I want the entire community to understand and realize is that we have a student in this room with us right now,” Oldson said, pointing to the board student rep. “We have a room full of divided parents.”
Richland’s student representative also jumped in.
“I don’t think it works to be heckling and to be telling people what to do and to be rude, or to be viewing students as a monolith,” the student said.
One teacher who commented by Zoom said she was disappointed in the board.
“It’s so sad. It’s embarrassing to work right now for this district,” she said.
But the unease continued.
During board comments, board member Rick Jansons spoke about attending a poetry slam at Hanford High School.
Students spoke about hurtful anti-LGBTQ comments in the community and at school.
“I want to first apologize for not speaking out more, but, second, emphasize we serve and value every single student — no matter what — in this district,” Jansons said.
But he was interrupted by a man at the meeting who began heckling him with shouts. Jansons told him to quiet down.
“I want him gone if he does it again,” he said, banging his fist against the table. “Throw him out.”
This story was originally published April 28, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
