(The Sentinel) — Embattled Manhattan-Ogden School Board Member Dr. Katie Allen refused her colleagues’ demand that she resign her position, days after losing her job with the Kansas Department of Education over a social media post in which she referred to last week’s assassination of Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk as “well deserved.”
The USD 383 Board voted 5-2 to call for Allen’s resignation. She countered by resigning her post as Board Vice-President.
Board President Kristin Brighton opened the meeting with a statement on what choices the board had to deal with the Allen Matter:
“We are here to discuss a board member conduct issue involving a comment made by one of our members on social media last week regarding a topic that was not directly related to her role on the Board of Education. The board has since had hundreds of emails, texts, and phone calls demanding this board member step down from her seat.
“I’d like to first state, as a point of clarification, that the board cannot fire or remove an elected board member from their seat. ?However, I’ve done quite a bit of research over the past few days as to what actions we as a board can do to express our displeasure of someone’s actions.
“The options are as follows:
“One, if the person in question is an officer of the board, and the member in question is, we can remove them from that office. Two, we can also prohibit them from holding any future board office. Three, we can choose to remove them from any committee assignments they’re on. Four, we can formally pass the resolution, asking them to resign, but we can’t make them resign. ?And the irony is that they get a vote as to whether or not they support the board making this request of themselves. And five, we can choose to take no formal action.”
Allen explains why she won’t resign
Allen was then given an opportunity to deliver a statement:
“I take full responsibility for the words and actions that led to this conversation. My words have hurt a lot of people, and I am deeply sorry for that. I’ve been reflecting on everything that has happened this past week. I’ve thought a lot and read a lot about what it means to be a leader. ?What came up most often were these qualities: Honesty, effective communication, decisiveness, compassion, and self-awareness. Perfection wasn’t on any of these lists. ?One stupid mistake does not define anyone nor eliminate the possibility of doing good work moving forward.
“My passion has always been for helping young people find opportunities to learn and succeed, and that drive I have to serve the next generation will never diminish. I will not resign from the board. ?But I will step down from the leadership role of Vice President.
A mentor of mine once told me that “You learn the most in the times that you fail,” but he also told me, “Don’t ever give up.”
“There have been a lot of lessons learned this past week, but especially I want to point out that social media and the Internet are one of the biggest challenges we have to civil discourse. ?And I’m guilty of that as well. So much of everyday life requires us to be online, we’ve been accustomed to quickly clicking and sharing thoughts, and it’s often an instinctual response, because that’s what social media is, it is designed to get people to respond in times of emotion. There’s no way to control what other people put about you online, but moving forward, I hope that when we are all online, we can all engage in the core practices of civil discourse that we expect when we are in person.
Some of those are focusing on issues and not people, discussing the facts and making sure that you understand, instead of attacking people personally. Listen to others, ask for clarifying questions and make sure that you confirm your own understanding.. If you have positions, defend those positions with evidence that come from a verified information source and engage with diverse viewpoints to find common ground, and mostly, let’s all be kind.
“It’s not lost on me that today (September 17th), as we’re here this evening to address the consequences of free speech, but it’s also Constitution Day. I recently came across a quote about what has happening right now, not just here, but across the nation, at the intersection of a national tragedy. ?And the official day to acknowledge in our schools, the importance of words in the document that gives us all our individual rights. I’m going to share a quote from you from Allen Chaney, from South Carolina ACLU. He said this just the other day. “It is in the hard times, not the easy ones, when our commitment to American values is tested.”
“In the face of politicized and sometimes manufactured outrage, we call on school districts and university presidents to model the tolerance for upsetting speech that is demanded by the First Amendment, so that they might instill that firmly rooted American value in the next generation. I am committed to moving forward with a focus on what is most important. ?Working together to ensure all students have opportunities to learn and develop into critical thinkers who will contribute in a meaningful way to a more just society.”
Allen and Jayme Morris-Hardeman opposed the resolution, supported by Brighton, along with Karla Hagemeister, Greg Hoyt, Christine Weixelman, and Curt Herrman.
