On Tuesday, residents of San Francisco decided they had enough and voted yesterday to recall three school board members over harsh covid restrictions in schools, including the school board President.  The school board members, who were leading proponents of extended school closures, covid restrictions, and social justice measures in San Francisco schools, were voted out overwhelmingly.   The campaign received bipartisan support and was supported by diverse coalitions.  Despite this, Gabriela Lopez, who is the ousted school board President, lashed out at supporters of the recall.  In a Tweet that was a response to a Washington Post article, Lopez associated recall supporters with white supremacists.

“So if you fight for racial justice, this is the consequence. Don’t be mistaken, white supremacists are enjoying this. And the support of the recall is aligned with this.” Lopez said.

 

 

People harshly criticized Lopez in the responses to her Tweet.  One user said “why wouldn’t we instead want to teach our kids important skills? Maybe financial literacy? How to purchase a home? How not to end up in debt? How to cook a meal?! I’m a POC and racial justice just isn’t a priority.”

Siva Raj, an Indian man who led the recall campaign, gave a statement about why people were frustrated with the San Francisco school board.  “The impetus to it was really seeing that the school board seemed to deprioritize reopening, deprioritize a lot of things that mattered to students and parents, and instead was focused on doing a lot of things that were symbolic, that was more about politics and really not about anything to do with educating our kids,”  He said.

 

 

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