SAN DIEGO — A San Diego County School District has condemned the behavior of a board member who likened efforts to reopen schools to white supremacist ideology, white privilege, and slavery, prompting a backlash from the community.
The remarks made Tuesday by Charda Bell-Fontenot, vice president of the La Mesa-Spring Valley Board of Education, were captured on video and posted on Facebook, where it received more than 15,000 views. Bell-Fontenot, who is black, directed her comments toward her colleagues, who are white and Hispanic, in a testy exchange during a virtual board meeting. Ultimately the board voted 4-1 vote in favor of reopening schools on April 19.
“We can’t just say that kids can go back in the classroom, and there’s no vaccinated teachers willing to do that,” Bell-Fontenot said. “How are we forcing people — that seems like a very white supremacist ideology to force people to comply with …You are thinking about one type of family when you are speaking right now. Privilege. Check it, you guys!”
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Superintendent David Feliciano, whom Bell-Fontenot called a racist when he defended her colleagues, said the school district has received numerous complaints since the video aired, many of them hateful and threatening toward Bell-Fontenot. Those communications were forwarded to police.
The board said in a statement: “Trustee Charda Bell-Fontenot behaved in a manner the Board does not condone, nor did her behavior represent our values and our commitments to our students, community, and to each other. We have received many emails and calls of great concern from our families and community members. While we were also disappointed and offended by Trustee Fontenot’s behavior, we were saddened to learn that she has received hateful, racist, and threatening communications as a result.”
The meeting started with a discussion of numerous comments that were received from parents and teachers. Approximately 80% asked for schools to reopen. Gov. Gavin Newsom has made a concerted push to get all teachers vaccinated in order to open schools, although new CDC guidelines do not require teachers to be vaccinated. Bell-Fontenot did not want the schools open without teachers getting vaccines.
Trustees began talking about a method to do this when Bell-Fontenot said: “I want to know, geographically, from which school sites, which language groups, and how we conducted this feedback. Where? Please, give it to me before I can make a decision. I can’t make one.”
The school district is 50% Hispanic, 28% white, and 9% black.
When another trustee said she did not have socioeconomic data, Bell-Fontenot made her white supremacy comment and said, “I don’t want to be a part of forcing anybody to do anything they don’t want to do. That’s what slavery is, and I’m not going to be a part of it.”
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None of the other board members pushed back on Bell-Fontenot’s comments until Hispanic trustee Minerva Martinez Scott apparently had enough and said children need to be in school.
“You keep throwing out the racism, but I am Hispanic, and we have four adopted children, and we look like the U.N. So, when you throw out racism, I don’t understand that part,” Martinez Scott said. “My child has also been affected by not being in school. My kid is in a facility because he had a hard time not being in school. I was able to find resources to get him the help needed. I want all the kids back in school.”
Bell-Fontenot did not respond to a request for comment.
