QAnon conspiracy theorists spoiled a Saturday fundraiser for a charter school in California.
Grass Valley Charter School ended up canceling an annual fundraiser after QAnon supporters repeatedly emailed the pre-K through eighth grade institution, and local law enforcement, potentially indicating a terror attack against the school, located northeast of Sacramento.
The QAnon conspiracists focused on an April 27 tweet by former FBI Director James Comey. The former agency director, fired by President Trump in May 2017, had on April 27 participated in a Twitter chat about earlier-career jobs. His tweet included the viral hashtag #FiveJobsIveHad.
“1. Grocery store clerk 2. Vocal soloist for church weddings 3. Chemist 4. Strike-replacement high school teacher 5. FBI Director, interrupted,” Comey tweeted.
#FiveJobsIveHad 1. Grocery store clerk
2. Vocal soloist for church weddings
3. Chemist
4. Strike-replacement high school teacher
5. FBI Director, interrupted— James Comey (@Comey) April 27, 2019
Supporters of the so-called QAnon movement seemed to think Comey was using the tweet as a sort of veiled threat. The conspiracy theorists said that the first letter of each of the jobs made up the acronym GVCSF and that it stood for the Grass Valley Charter School Foundation. They also conjectured that the #FiveJobsIveHad was code for “JIHad.”
The schools foundation had planned to host the Blue Marble Jubilee on Saturday, but ended up canceling out of caution after being flooded with phone calls and emails warning about a threat, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
According to Sgt. Brian Blakemore of the Grass Valley Police Department those in charge were not worried about a threat from Comey, but rather that vigilantes “might show up to guard the place.”
Wendy Willoughby, president of the foundation, said that the cancellation hurts students and families in the community.
“Not only is it disappointing that the cancellation of this event deprives the families of our school and community a day of fun and connection, but the Blue Marble Jubilee also serves as a fundraiser,” Willoughby said in a statement. “We now find ourselves not only out the potential dollars raised at the event, but also the money already spent in preparation.”
QAnon is a debunked far-right conspiracy theory started on the internet that claims President Trump and special counsel Robert Mueller secretly joined forces to stop a “deep state” overthrow of the government and alleges that politicians and Hollywood elite planning the overthrow engage in pedophilia.
