LACONIA – Last week’s school board meeting ushered in sudden changes and limits to public comment period that some audience members say caught them off guard and resulted in shouts, insults and accusations – and prompted the board to call a recess to.
Laconia School Board members walk out, residents hurl insults at chaotic meeting
Published: 6/17/2021 7:23:36 PM
The Laconia School Board meeting devolved into chaos Tuesday as some members of the public tried to confront the board over the issue of critical race theory.
Tuesday’s meeting marked the second time this month that a group of residents from Laconia and neighboring towns have come to press their opposition to critical race theory, an academic concept that seeks to explore how laws have been used in certain instances to maintain racism.
School District Superintendent Steve Tucker said earlier in the month that CRT is not being taught in city schools.
The ongoing debate on how school children learn about racism has prompted the City Council to ask whether two controversial approaches to the topic are being taught in city schools.The council directed City Manager Scott Myers to ask Superintendent.
Laconia school board member says masks in school violate state law
Published: 5/6/2021 4:10:48 PM
A school board member is demanding that the school district rescind its COVID face mask regulation, saying that the order is illegal.
Dawn Johnson said at Tuesday’s board meeting that requiring students to wear face masks is a violation of a state law that limits the use of child restraint practices in schools and treatment facilities.
“We are in violation of this law. It restricts a child from breathing as they should be,” she told the board.
Current school policy requires that students and staff wear face masks if they cannot maintain 6 feet of physical distance.
Dawn Johnson lashes out, calls Laconia School Board a disgrace
Dawn Johnson, a state representative and school board member in Laconia.
Laconia School Board member Dawn Johnson, lower left, holds up her smartphone as she tells the board how an anti-Semitic cartoon was posted to her Twitter account. Johnson lashed out at the board Tuesday after it urged her to resign over the matter. Others shown in this screen shot of the board s virtual meeting are members of the public, school administrators, and other board members, including board Chair Heather Lounsbury, middle row, second left. Courtesy
Modified: 12/17/2020 12:11:11 PM
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