A conservative school board member fired back at a liberal colleague who tried to silence a parent at a school board meeting on Tuesday in Florida.
Bridget Ziegler confronted chair Jane Goodwin at the Sarasota County School Board meeting when Goodwin targeted Melissa Bakondy as Bakondy began speaking, the Daily Mail reported Friday.
Bakondy had stepped behind the podium to voice a complaint over a policy about recording parent-teacher meetings and started by saying a board member was “caught on the microphone” at the previous meeting.
However, Goodwin interjected, saying, “Stop talking about school board members.”
Goodwin, who heads up the board’s liberal majority, ejected the woman, claiming, “You were about to say something horrible about Shirley Brown. … You’ve said things about me that were untrue. Leave, please.”
Sarasota County Schools posted video footage of the meeting featuring the exchange and officers were seen surrounding Bakondy as she stood at the podium.
But the moment Goodwin asked Bakondy if she had children in the district, conservative member Ziegler spoke up.
“That is not appropriate. … You don’t get to ask people who come to a public meeting whether they have children or not. Period. You are way out of line,” declared Ziegler.
Moments later, Bakondy turned away from the podium and was followed by the officers.
It was not immediately clear what Bakondy was about to say during her remarks, but according to the Mail report, she has been outspoken about social issues online.
In a social media post on Friday, Ziegler called the incident “outrageous,” saying it made her feel sad, frustrated, embarrassed, and angry:
“This is not how government works. Taxpayers pay for our school district and parents are our customers. They ALL have a right to have their voices heard. And elected officials should know that hearing feedback – both positive and negative – is a requirement of the job,” she continued.
“If they don’t like it, they shouldn’t have run for office and should consider resigning,” stated Ziegler, who has been fighting the radical left at the local level since before it was on the national radar.
