Calif. school board member compares bringing teachers back for in-person learning to ‘slavery’

Chairs, desk and other school furniture is stacked outside a classroom at a public elementary school in Glendale, California just north of Los Angeles, August 17, 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic. – The school year starts this week with online classes only.  (Photo by ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)

OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 3:45 PM PT – Friday, February 26, 2021

A California school board member faced criticism for comparing the reopening of schools to “slavery and white supremacist ideology.” In a board meeting Tuesday, La Mesa Spring Valley School Board vice president Charda Bell-Fontenot criticized bringing teachers back for in-person learning.

The meeting was meant to discuss a date for reopening, but Bell-Fontenot attempted to keep the board from voting that day. She said teachers, students and parents don’t need to know when schools are expected to reopen and fought against in-person learning without vaccinated teachers.

“That’s where I’m at,” Bell-Fontenot said. “I don’t want to be part of forcing anyone to do anything they don’t want to do. That is what slavery is. I’m not gonna be a part of it.”

Furious parents started a petition for Bell-Fontenot to step down. However, the district’s superintendent David Feliciano confirmed the board voted in favor of bringing students back to campus for hybrid learning on April 19.

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