ASBA Messages

School Board Members Are Members of Your Community

The Arizona School Boards Association, as the voice for locally elected school boards across the state, denounces any attempt to intimidate or threaten school board members whether inside or outside of a public meeting.

Last night’s school board meeting in the Vail Unified School District, where continued mask use was to be discussed, was canceled due to concerns that the meeting could not be conducted safely for members of the board or the public. School board members are unpaid elected officials who live in the same community as the residents they serve. Too often this year they have been treated as faceless bureaucrats who are optimal targets to release rage and frustration over the circumstances of the pandemic.

The CDC continues to recommend “universal and correct use of masks” as a key prevention strategy, and any discussion about relaxing or altering that policy is itself a deference to community preferences.

This pandemic has created an environment where some members of the community feel that threatening public officials who do not agree with their views on managing it is permissible. It is not. We urge all federal, state and local elected officials in Arizona to condemn this type of behavior and to model and reinforce the behavior we expect from the students we serve. School board members should never feel that they are placing themselves or their families at risk by serving their communities. It must stop immediately.