Protesters throw tantrum outside home of SLO County school trustee. That’s a new low
Protesters crossed the line Tuesday night when they bullied a Lucia Mar Unified School District trustee by showing up outside her house, yelling, banging on a tambourine, blowing a horn and waving an American flag.
When a neighbor had the nerve to stage his own counter-protest, he was pepper sprayed by a member of the group demonstrating outside the Arroyo Grande home of Lucia Mar school board member Colleen Martin.
The impromptu protest lasted two hours, escalating hostilities between the South County school board and parents who disagree with board policies, especially when it comes to COVID-19 measures.
Members of the public absolutely have the right to disagree, but targeting an elected official’s home is an act of intimidation. Officials have to put up with enough as it is; they should at least be able to enjoy the sanctuary of their own homes.
Keep in mind, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen extremists at work in San Luis Obispo County.
We saw it when far-right conservatives bombarded a county supervisors meeting with hours of phone calls, demanding election “reforms” and criticizing former County Clerk-Recorder Tommy Gong, which ultimately played a part in Gong’s decision to leave San Luis Obispo County.
We saw it again when defiant crowds showed up at school board meetings to oppose the teaching of critical race theory, even though it isn’t taught at the K-12 level.
And now, it’s reached a whole new level of ugly with protests against mandatory masking in schools.
A leader of Tuesday’s impromptu action told Tribune reporter Mackenzie Shuman that the group was reacting to an alleged Brown Act violation by the school board, which held a meeting Tuesday night on Zoom. The protest leader claimed the board did not properly allow for public comment — an accusation that was untrue, since the board took comments at the end of the meeting.
Inconvenient? Sure, but there’s nothing new about having to wait hours for a turn at the microphone during a public meeting. This is no grand conspiracy to stifle the free speech rights of angry constituents, and certainly no reason to disrupt an entire neighborhood.
The protest was nothing more than ironic theatrics by a group of flag wavers who actually disrespect democracy.
They are unwilling to accept the decisions made by lawfully elected officials, and instead attempt to undermine them at every turn — even by showing up on a school board member’s doorstep.
Public officials’ homes should be off-limits to protesters. Period.
Their privacy should not be violated every time a disgruntled constituent disagrees with a decision. It’s traumatizing not just for the officials, but for their family members as well.
Some cities are passing ordinances forbidding such behavior.
The Los Angeles City Council, for example, recently voted 13-1 to draft a law that would bar protesters from coming within 300 feet of a public official’s private residence.
That’s an option for local agencies should this deplorable behavior continue. Let’s hope it doesn’t prove necessary.
To that end, could we all just calm the heck down and maybe recognize that our public officials, for the most part, are doing the best they can under the pressure of an 18-month-long crisis?
The last thing we need is an escalation in the harassment of our electeds. Who in the world will want to run for public office if it means having the peace and quiet of their neighborhood violated by angry protesters?
So here’s some advice. If you don’t like how your school board, your city council or your community services district is running the show, mark your calendars.
Elections are coming.
The place to make noise and disrupt the status quo is at the ballot box, not outside your neighbor’s house.