Recall charges against 3 Richland School Board members are too egregious to ignore | Opinion

That the Washington Supreme Court has allowed the recall charges to proceed against Richland School Board members Audra Byrd, Kari Williams and Semi Bird comes as no surprise.

A year ago the three blatantly voted to defy the state mask mandate despite numerous warnings from state officials and the school district’s own legal counsel that such a move would be illegal.

That alone is enough to justify giving voters a chance to remove them from office.

But in addition, they also violated the state Open Public Meetings Act — and that demonstrates an even deeper lack of respect for state law.

When the three decided to make masks optional, the issue was not specifically listed on the meeting agenda and the vote caught the community and school officials off guard. Text messages obtained by the Herald also revealed discussions that should not have happened behind the scenes.

Byrd, Williams and Bird were sly and reckless, and their actions resulted in closing school for two days while Richland school officials scrambled to deal with the unexpected consequences.

Teachers and staff weren’t ready for the switch, and there was a concern the state would pull the school district’s funding if the mask mandate wasn’t followed.

In the end, the students eventually returned to school wearing masks until the state requirement was lifted the following month.

It is no wonder the state’s highest court ruled this week that four recall charges against Byrd, Williams and Bird were “factually and legally sufficient.”

How the community will respond to the recall is the big question now.

Those in charge of the effort will have until early May to collect enough signatures. If they do, they are hoping to put the recall on the August primary ballot.

Brian Brendel with the Richland School Board Recall campaign said, “We’re not sure if people are upset or if they’ve moved on. We’ll find out.”

Doug McKinley, Brendel’s attorney, suggested the three school board members step down immediately to save Richland taxpayers money.

Yet, we’ve seen comments on social media by others in the community who believe just the opposite. They want the recall effort dropped.

Battle lines, it seems, are already being drawn. We hope that people will behave in a civil manner during this contentious time.

Audra Byrd and Semi Bird were elected in 2021 on a wave of frustration over the state mask mandate.

But there also were parents and citizens who were grateful for the extra caution and protective measures being taken, especially while hospitals were overrun with COVID patients and the death count from the disease continued to climb.

The division in the community was reflected at school board meetings, which often turned ugly, exhausting and even frightening. At one point, school officials started making sure there was a security officer attending the meetings just to help keep control.

The last thing Richland needs is a repeat of those bitter times.

The recall is not about masks and it’s not about how Gov. Jay Inslee managed the pandemic.

It’s about how Byrd, Williams and Bird put themselves above the law, and they did it with a vote the public didn’t see coming.

Whether recall supporters can gather enough signatures remains to be seen. Whether there will be enough people to vote Byrd, Williams and Bird out of office also remains to be seen.

But when elected officials go rogue and put their actions above the law, the voters should have a right to decide whether they want to keep them in office or not.