Something’s terribly wrong when security is needed at Richland School Board meetings

After the bullying, heckling and confrontations at the last in-person Richland School Board meeting, it’s no wonder district officials want at least one security officer in the room from now on.

Disruptive and belligerent behavior by adults in the audience is getting scary and it has to stop.

The video from the April 26 board meeting is now available on the district website, and it shows clearly why Richland School Board President Jill Oldson had to call for an unscheduled recess in the middle of the meeting.

The crowd was getting nasty, and the break was needed to calm people down.

The public comment period was limited to 30 minutes, with each person getting 2 minutes to talk. When one woman found out she wouldn’t get a turn, she went to the front of the room and demanded to speak anyway.

She ended up getting shut down, and that triggered angry shouts from her and others in the audience.

This particular night was so hostile that school district officials have decided to hire security for every board meeting beginning May 10 — a drastic, but apparently necessary measure.

This is especially true after a reported altercation between a school district staff member and an aggressive attendee.

Seriously, what is wrong with people?

What citizens need to understand is that school board members aren’t legally required to hold an open comment period at their meetings. If they wanted to, they could skip it altogether.

But typically, elected officials feel obliged to hear from constituents, and listening to comments is a good way to gauge public opinion on varied topics.

Even so, that doesn’t mean everybody is guaranteed a chance to speak. And it certainly shouldn’t be used as an opportunity to verbally attack others.

There’s nothing wrong with using a forceful tone and forceful words to get a point across. But when the language devolves into shouting, name-calling, demands to speak and threats, then it’s gone too far and the message gets lost in the clamor.

And there’s nothing wrong with setting limits on public comments, especially when people can easily contact elected officials by phone or email.

Public meetings shouldn’t go on for hours, especially when it detracts from getting through the agenda.

And on this particular night, there were important decisions to be made, especially regarding a recall petition against school board members Audra Byrd, Kari Williams and Semi Bird.

With the court scheduled to hear the case on Monday, the school board had to decide whether it would cover their legal fees.

The three board members are accused not only of trying to defy the state school mask mandate, but also of breaking Washington open meetings and public records laws and violating school district ethics policies. The Herald received text messages from the three board members indicating they discussed the vote beforehand behind the scenes.

Audra Byrd, however, also deleted many of her texts about that discussion, later claiming her phone didn’t have enough storage space for all of them. But the law requires such texts to be saved as public records.

The district is now paying Spokane-based Roloff Digital Forensics $275 per hour, plus an $1,100 retainer fee as well as travel and accommodation costs, to recover the deleted messages.

That’s a lot of money that could be better spent on educating kids.

In the end, the school board reached a reasonable compromise and decided that the district should cover the costs if the judge dismisses the recall petition.

But if it goes forward, then those three school board members are on the hook to pay.

While there were many in the audience who didn’t want taxpayers potentially footing the bill, there is precedence for that arrangement.

Government agencies often cover attorney fees when elected officials are targeted in a recall. It’s a common practice that protects city council and school board members from unfounded efforts to remove them from office.

But the case against Byrd, Williams and Bird is on solid ground.

We will wait to see what the judge says, but we think there is a good chance the recall petition will go forward and that means the divide in the community is not going to close any time soon.

To help keep meetings civil, the district is setting up an online sign-up process for those wanting to provide public comment beginning with the May 10 meeting.

And sadly, there will be security present because district staff and citizens don’t feel safe.

What a shame that a school community full of smart, kind, respectful and generous people must go to such extreme measures.