What is it about Illinois and its school boards? Last week I told you about the school board president who accused a special needs mom of performing for TV when she told the board how masks were affecting her son. Now we learn that at another Illinois school board meeting a member directed obscenities at a man who was making public comment. Because he wasn’t wearing his mask.
What is it with these boards and their Gestapo tactics?
And where are Jake and Elwood when we need them?
Credit: tenor.com.
Earlier this week, the Glenbrook High School District in Glenbrook, IL, held a school board meeting. Like Algonquin — the city where the school board president insulted the special needs mom — Glenbrook is also a suburb of Chicago. (What is it about Chicago, too? I digress).
A man wanted to speak before the board, and, as was his right, made sure he had his two full minutes. However, he took off his mask when he came to the podium. And that’s when the kerfuffle began.
The moderator interrupted him and told him to put on his mask. The man, named Mark, declined to do so, saying he had a medical exemption. The moderator pushed back, but Mark persisted, saying he had an exemption and didn’t want to discuss medical issues in public. He also said he was embarrassed.
“Moderator: I’m sorry, it’s a rule you have to follow. I’m sorry, sir. That’s the rule. You need to keep your mask on.”
“Mark: I have an exemption. I mean, I don’t want to go into the whole thing about, explain to you. I don’t even know you guys, and I don’t want to explain my medical situation. I thought I’d be allowed to speak. Can I restart my clock? I’m at 38 seconds now.”
In this case, however, the moderator decided to defuse the situation. So he accepted Mark’s exemption claim.
“Mark: I can’t speak with my mask on; I can’t articulate. I have a medical — you’re not gonna honor a medical and religious exemption?”
“Moderator: If you have a medical exemption, okay. That’s fine sir.”
Well, yay for the moderator. But wait! There was also a would-be despot among the board members, and he was not about to have Mark go maskless.
It was then that a school board member named Joel Taub stirred the pot — and in a big way, too. He interrupted Mark as he began to speak, and asked the moderator if he was going to let him continue. The moderator replied that Mark had an exemption, but Taub wouldn’t have anyone flout the sacred mask rules. Oh, no, no, no!
“Taub: Are you gonna let him speak without a mask?”
“Moderator: Well, he’s got a medical exemption.”
“Mark: Now he’s interrupting me. I mean, you guys are rude. Do I get to speak or not? Do I get to speak? (gesturing to Taub) Who’s this? Are you the mask police? Can I speak or not?”
And then it went downhill from there as Taub became more infuriated with Mark for not wearing a mask. Then Taub launched into not one, not two, but three F-bombs as he screamed at Mark.
“You can wear your mask on your f***ing balls. If you don’t wear the f****** mask, you get the f*** out of here!”
Taub was completely off the rails, but what was even more disturbing is that fact that some people in attendance actually clapped for Taub.
What’s fortunate, however, is that school board meetings are part of the public record. And, as such, they are recorded on video. So here, without further ado, is the despicable Joel Taub using obscenities against a member of the public. A taxpayer of Illinois who just wants to address his school board.
First, we saw a school board president mock the mom of a special needs child who wanted the board to know how masks negatively affect her son. And now contempt for parents has ratcheted up yet again with a member using obscenities to address a father.
So Illinois parents: are you happy with these shenanigans from your school boards? Do you enjoy seeing your elected board members using Gestapo tactics to shout down other parents? Or maybe it’s schadenfreude for some of you. Perhaps you think they deserve the derision.
But you parents from the Land of Lincoln who cherish your freedom to speak out at the local level should remember Joel Taub and his foul mouth. And vote little despots like him from office.
Featured image: Jim Barker/flickr/cropped/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Steve S says: File suit against their bonds. If it’s like other places they would be personally bonded, but with a significant portion (like $20k in some places I’ve read of this being done) being their out of pocket responsibility.
Lewis says: How long does it take for people to understand that Boards of Education, school staff, teachers are all Bat-$hit crazy. They have been for 40 years or more! There is no understanding crazy, it just is, begin to rewind from there and start over, but beware, they can hurt you, they can hurt your child, your job, your home, your everything? We have battled that for the 12 years our kid was in school in the 70’s and 80’s and nobody wanted to believe it. Now, we are geniuses for knowing, but we still couldn’t do anything about it! We have not given up voting “NO” on just about everything, but have given up trying to change things. We are just too damn old and tired to care anymore! Some younger and stronger parents will have to take the helm, God bless them, it’s a thankless job and one that I think is not easily won, if ever at all it might happen! Good luck, crazy does what it does over and over and over!
GWB says: And where are Jake and Elwood when we need them?
Whoa, you want someone to run over the the school board members on a bridge?!
This is exactly what the people who often get into these positions of power think, though. They think they are better than the general public. And they think they have the power – seldom remembering they have that power as a delegation of the people’s power. I don’t think I would have been as meek as the father was.
Kim Hirsch says: “And where are Jake and Elwood when we need them?”
“Whoa, you want someone to run over the the school board members on a bridge?!”
Ah, but Jake and Elwood didn’t run over the Illinois Nazis on the bridge. They forced them off the bridge and into the creek below. Kind of like what the people of San Francisco just did with three of their school board members — forced them out of their offices.
Don’t worry — no Nazis were harmed in the making of “The Blues Brothers.”
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