It’s your last chance to sign Richland School Board recall petitions. Let’s get this done | Opinion

The Richland recall effort is in its home stretch.

Citizens will have just three more days — including today — to sign the petition to recall Richland School board members Audra Byrd, Kari Williams and Semi Bird.

So if you’ve wanted to put your name on the list but have been putting it off, this weekend is your last chance to get it done.

Signature gatherers will be at Jefferson Park Friday afternoon from 3-6 p.m.

▪ On Saturday, they will be at Badger Mountain Park from noon-2 p.m.

▪ On Sunday they will be at Jefferson Park from noon-2 p.m.

Brad Rew, an organizer for the recall effort, said Sunday is the last day the group will gather signatures.

Only registered voters who live within the boundaries of the Richland School District can sign the three recall petitions — one for each school board member.

The recall campaign needs to collect the signatures of 25% of the total number of votes cast in the last election that each school board member was involved in.

But the goal is to collect an additional 10% cushion to account for any errors — the push is on.

Here’s how many signatures they will need to gather for each school board member to satisfy the 35% threshold:

▪ Kari Williams: 5,176

▪ Misipati Semi Bird: 5,822

▪ Audra Byrd: 5,887

In all, that adds up to 16,885 signatures.

The controversy over Byrd, Williams and Bird’s decision to illegally make masks optional last year has divided Richland for months.

But if anyone has been on the fence as to whether these three rogue school board members broke state law, the Washington state Supreme Court just came out with its written ruling on the case.

The court order on Feb. 9 allowed the recall effort to go forward, but a detailed report on why the justices supported it was not released until this week.

Now it has —and its timing is weirdly appropriate. If recall supporters needed last-minute backing, this is it.

The court’s written opinion affirms that Byrd, Williams and Bird were aware that the Washington state mask mandate carried the force of law — and that they knowingly decided to defy the law because they disagreed with it.

And their recklessness launched chaos.

Regardless of how many citizens pushed them to defy the governor’s orders, elected leaders have an obligation to follow the law. When Byrd, Williams and Bird chose to put the school district in illegal territory, the school superintendent was forced to close school for two days.

It was the right decision. Employees cannot be forced to break a state law.

Suddenly canceling school was tough for students, parents and staff, but it was the safest choice. State officials were clear that funding would be put at risk if school districts didn’t follow Gov. Jay Inslee’s COVID mandates.

In addition, the court also agreed that the majority board members did not give proper notice that they were going to make such a major decision — and that’s a violation of the state Open Meetings Act.

Many people didn’t like wearing masks and other COVID restrictions, but as a society we don’t get to pick and choose which laws we follow.

The goal of recall supporters is to give Richland citizens a chance to vote Byrd, Williams and Bird out of office in the August primary election.

To get to that point, enough Richland citizens first must sign the petitions. Let’s get this done.