The most vocal member of the conservative faction of Norwin's school board this week condemned the way the district handled a request by Turning Point USA to speak to students after classes at the high school.
School board member Alex Detchelt said Monday the administration's decision to cancel an appearance by Stephen Davis, a Black conservative activist, was handled without the board's involvement.
Davis was to appear Thursday for what was billed as a motivational speech, according to fliers school administrators said were posted prematurely.
The district announced Oct. 7 that it wasn't allowing the event because of safety concerns.
The board should have had input in the decision, Detchelt said.
He led a failed attempt this week to reschedule the event.
The board evenly split on the issue. Directors Bill Bojalad, Ray Kocak, Tim Kotch and Matt Thomas did not want to consider voting on the issue at the Nov. 11 meeting, while Detchelt, Christine Baverso, Shawna Ilagan and Nina Totin favored bringing the matter to a vote. Director Heath Shrum was absent from the meeting.
The vote mostly split along the board's factions. Baverso, Detschelt and Ilagan were elected on a conservative slate in 2021, while Bojalad, Kotch and Thomas won seats in the 2023 election.
"It was purely made a decision out of the safety of our students, not inviting a speaker here where there could potentially be violence," said Superintendent Natalie McCracken.
Other Turning Point speakers have presented programs at Norwin without problems. Some students and staff still would have been on campus during the presentation, McCracken said.
"There was no cloak-and-dagger. We were very upfront about it," McCracken said.
The content of Davis' speech was never an issue, McCracken said, adding that the administration told the students that they could have Davis speak off the campus.
A 100-person brawl broke out when Davis was scheduled to present a program in 2022 at University of California-Davis, McCracken said.
The university canceled his presentation because of violent protests involving students, community members and the far-right extremist group Proud Boys, according to news reports.
"I think this is a failed logic premise," Ilagan said, adding that she believed it would be a shame for students to miss the program on leadership.
The directors resolved to have the matter discussed in a board committee meeting, possibly in its security meeting. Ilagan pressed Thomas to make certain the matter would not die in committee.
Detschelt also raised the point that Norwin was denying a Black man an opportunity to speak on the heels of signing a consent decree with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights. The consent decree commits Norwin to ensure further compliance of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act when responding to alleged race-based harassment.
"Here we are, a couple of weeks later, telling a Black person who wants to spread a message of leadership to our students, you've been denied to speak here," Detschelt said.