After trying to fire the superintendent, rejecting a new curriculum and seeking to eliminate school librarians, the Somerset County school board has gotten an earful from the public.

It reacted by limiting the way people can interact with its members.

The board shut down public comment, retreating to online meetings “due to the increased violence, vitriol and disruption in the boardroom,“ Somerset County school board Chairman Matthew Lankford said in an email to a parent obtained by The Banner.

Lankford said in a separate email to The Banner asking about the changes that he had no comment about limiting in-person access to meetings. The other board members did not respond to requests for comment.

The board’s two September meetings took place online. During one of those meetings, two board members said they disagreed with the decision.

“Most people in Somerset County don’t have a computer,” board member John Robertson said. “I look at the crowd and they are sitting there respectful. I think it [meeting in public] is necessary in this county.”

Board member William McInturff said he concurred.

“This is not going to be a standing thing forever,” Lankford said at the meeting. “I never thought I would see some of the things I have seen in the last few months. I do think it is getting somewhat dangerous.”

When a board member asked that the issue be debated in public, Lankford said it would be discussed during a closed door meeting.

The board’s decision came after two meetings where a parent, Joe Hylton, was escorted out of the room after forcefully questioning the board and raising his voice.

Hylton, a Black parent who has been an outspoken opponent of the MAGA-aligned board majority, believes his children’s education will be harmed by their actions.

Parents and teachers are particularly upset by the board’s attempt to fire the Black superintendent, Ava Tasker-Mitchell. The decision was never announced in public, nor was the board’s attempt to hire a new superintendent.

Those decisions were later put on hold by Maryland Public School Superintendent Carey Wright, who reinstated Tasker-Mitchell pending a hearing on the issue before the Maryland State Board of Education.

The state board with the approval of the legislature has extended the reinstatement for the hearing by several months.

On Monday, state education officials urged Somerset’s board to return to in-person meetings.

At the last in-person board meeting on Aug. 19, Hylton stood up for his three minutes of public comment. He faced the audience, with his back to the board, and talked about the cost of paying the board’s attorney, Gordana Schifanelli, to drive from her home in Queen Anne’s County to Somerset County and back again each board meeting.

Schifanelli is being paid $250 an hour for her services as attorney, Hylton said. She was the running mate of Dan Cox, the Donald Trump-endorsed 2022 Republican governor candidate. Schifanelli’s practice had not included education law.

Lankford told Hylton to face the board and not the audience. Hylton shot back at Lankford, suggesting Lankford speak to the audience as well. Lankford gaveled the meeting to a five-minute recess and said that people would be escorted out of the room. One woman in the audience said, “If he goes, we go.”

“We are going to eliminate all public comment,” Lankford said.

Then the room erupted into screaming and Hylton got angry when an unidentified man came up to him from behind. Hylton said in an interview that he feared he would be assaulted.

“Never will I let someone run up behind me,” Hylton said. “He set off alarms.”

The unidentified man can later be heard on recordings saying that Hylton was “a member of Black Lives Matter” and that he was “going to report [Hylton] to the NAACP.” The man then shouted that he wanted to press criminal charges because he had been assaulted by Hylton.

The audience erupted into shouting, and it appeared the second man was escorted out of the meeting as well as Hylton.

Since limiting access, the board has not allowed video recordings to be broadcast at its virtual meetings. Deborah Jeon, legal director of the ACLU of Maryland, who has been keeping track of the clashes in board meetings, said the board has noted that people have sent them public comments without reading it or saying what the subject was.

In their statement, the Maryland State Board of Education and the state superintendent said they “are deeply concerned by the Somerset County Board of Education’s abrupt move to hold open meetings online. While online meetings may be necessary under rare conditions like public health emergencies or severe weather, those circumstances do not apply here.”

The statement said the board risked undermining public trust and transparency.

“We strongly urge them to return to in-person meetings, in alignment with every other local board of education across Maryland,” the statement said.

Jeon said the Maryland Open Meetings Act does not require public bodies to have a public comment section for their meetings. However, Somerset County’s board rules do have a public comment requirement.

Jeon said the board appears to be breaking those rules, although it is unclear what the consequences of ignoring procedures might be. In addition, she said, governments can’t single out people based on the content of the speech.

“It does seem as though there is an effort to censor content in violation of the First Amendment,” she said.

She believes the board has become sensitive to criticism and its most recent action is making its relationship with the community worse.

“I think that this has heightened the concern because the public feels as though they are being disrespected and shut out,” Jeon said.

Hylton plans to challenge the board’s failure to allow online public comments. He previously submitted written comments that were not acknowledged.

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.