Conservative school board members in Texas said their left-wing colleagues tried to censure them and reverse the will of voters after they pushed to let the public sit in on their meetings.
Mary Bone and Danielle Weston, who sit on the Round Rock Independent School District Board of Trustees, accused the president of the board, Amy Weir, of filing two censure resolutions against them after they complained that the school district violated the Texas Open Meetings Act by blocking members of the public from attending their meetings.
The controversy began in September, when the school board limited the number of parents who could sit in the audience of a meeting. Two fathers forced their way into the meeting, and were arrested as a result.
Bone and Weston then accused the board of violating Texas law, which requires meetings held by governmental bodies to be open to the public.
In response, Weir tried to punish them, they said.
“The vicious censure resolutions to strip Trustee Mary Bone and me of the powers and duties bestowed upon us by the voters is a naked political hit job,” Weston told Fox News. “The majority on the board are diverting taxpayer dollars and manpower away from students and teachers to destroy our reputations and inflict financial pain.”
To prevent the school board from censuring them, Weston and Bone filed a lawsuit against the board. Judge Betsy Lambeth granted them a temporary restraining order blocking Weir’s censure resolutions. A hearing on the issue is scheduled for Dec. 22.
“I totally believe that it was a coordinated attack, to reverse the election, and to silence anybody that has a voice that’s similar to ours,” Bone said.
Weston added: “All we want is for the political persecution we are enduring to stop. Resources, time, money, and manpower of the board of trustees should only be expended on the education of students, not political attacks on trustees.”
