This screen shot sof a YouTube video shows staff and board members leaving a Vernon school board meeting while a protester dominates the microphone.

Image Credit: YouTube

When we first started hearing rumblings that things were going pear-shaped at Vernon school board meetings, we tried to find out what was going on.

We found it strange the newly-elected board refused to answer any questions about it. Before he went on leave, our Vernon reporter Ben Bulmer managed to find out through unofficial sources that failed candidate Jewlie Milligan was issued a no-trespass order by the RCMP for repeatedly disrupting meetings.

The board has been dealing with a militant group of these protestors who’ve got it in their heads that school boards are indoctrinating children into an LGBT and transgender new world order.

It’s a conspiracy theory with actual details. They identified a bunch of books ‘approved’ for school libraries they say makes their point. I’ve had two different reporters look into their claims and both stopped after finding the first lies, half-truths and fables very quickly. It’s a giant nothing burger.

Evidently these new zealots continued to attack school board trustees and officials at the meetings. If you haven’t seen it, check out this video from December. A protester basically took over, reading some diatribe and refused to stop. Staff and trustees left the room and turned out the lights and of course — they just kept going. A crowd of roughly a dozen people erupted in applause when she finished.

Marshall Jones, managing editor

Then this week, our reporter Rob Munro broke the news that future board meetings won’t be held in public. If the public is interested, and in truth it often isn’t, they can watch on Zoom.

That’s how democracy died. And everyone applauded them for it.

Is that too strong to say? It’s just a school board where not much happens anyway, right? No one really goes to meetings anymore, including most reporters. But this is the kind of idea that spreads to all politicians looking for cover.

It’s not acceptable then to just buckle at the knees and retreat when the going gets tough.

I suppose there’s an argument that democracy is still served through video conferencing. But at the very least, that is a step back, a retrenchment. Video conferencing is a nice addition, but a pale comparison to the real thing. Plus, navigating the videoconferencing is always fraught with errors… buffering, sound issues, bandwidth, spinning wheels of death. And you’re telling me I need a phone or computer to access this institution?

I’m tempted to call the board cowardly, but we know better than most what these dingbats are capable of. They are dangerous. Members of this group have harassed us and threatened legal action many times.

It didn’t stop us, nor any other media outlets, from publishing.

I fully acknowledge the difficulty trustees face but there must be alternatives. Where is the RCMP? They’re pretty quick to bust shoplifters at grocery stories, got plenty of time to hand out speeding tickets. Surely defending a democratic institution is in the job description. They should be embarrassed that it has gotten to this point. This is trespassing. It’s Causing a Disturbance at the very least.

Perhaps the board could hire security. They could find a better venue for the meetings. Why not talk about the issue more so the rest of Vernon could decide if they’re fine with a bunch of bullies attempting a coup of the school district?

The one action they did take was a mistake. You can’t show weakness to bullies. Instead, trustees rolled over, exposed their jugulars and created a legitimate complaint as a bonus.

At some point, we’re going to have to take the kid gloves off with these guys. Premier David Eby should probably play a role here too. When anti-abortion protesters kept up daily protests at hospitals, the province ordered an exclusion zone. When the anti-vaxx crowd started targeting schools, they created another exclusion zone.

We arrest old growth forest logging protesters by the dozens. Same with pipeline protesters and tiny house warriors. Why are we all so patient about a coordinated campaign against democratically elected trustees?

No one promised democracy would be easy. It’s still worth fighting for at every level.

— Marshall Jones is the Managing Editor of iNFOnews.ca

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