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Republican school board candidates laugh at student singing the national anthem [1]

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Date: 2022-08-24

According to the outlet, Fairfax County Republicans held a meeting on Aug. 16 in which the disturbing video was discussed. Stacy Langton, a parent in the county, reportedly brought the incident up. Langton alleged the video shows Jackson and Lundquist-Arora “mocking a severely autistic boy” as he sang the anthem during a previous school board meeting.

“If you think it’s okay for an adult to mock a disabled child,” Langston said during the meeting. “It’s not okay.”

The video was reportedly available via the “Shadow Board” show hosted on YouTube. The show is not actually affiliated with the county but run by Jackson and includes himself and others, including Lundquist-Arora, giving commentary on the school board meetings.

The outlet interviewed Jackson, who called the incident a “mistake” and said he does not think their laughter was appropriate.

x New: Two candidates running for Fairfax County school board “mocked” and laughed at “a severely autistic boy singing the national anthem at a school board.” @7NewsDC



Full story: https://t.co/SIC9w7R53m pic.twitter.com/FgbWBNQVzL — Nick Minock (@NickMinock) August 23, 2022

“We didn’t know it was a student,” he told the outlet. “We didn’t know what the student’s background was. No offense was intended.”

The reporter asked some great questions, including if Jackson actually regrets what he did or if he just regrets it because he got caught, to which Jackson said does regret it and that he does agree he owes the student and family an apology.

Lundquist-Arora gave a statement to the outlet saying she meant “no offense” and apologizes for her behavior. She said she was confused because YouTube had “circled back” to an earlier meeting and was puzzled as to why the board was holding a national anthem performance at the end of the meeting.

Obviously, mocking an adult would be inappropriate, ableist, and unacceptable. When it’s a student, all of that applies, and even more so.

Let’s all pay close attention to our local school board meetings, whether we have young people in our lives enrolled or not. Every level of government matters and the people involved in our school boards carry an enormous amount of weight, especially given how little they’re discussed.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/8/24/2118524/-Virginia-school-board-candidates-caught-laughing-at-student-singing-national-anthem

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