Ocean View School District removes committee member over ācolored peopleā comment on YouTube
A Huntington Beach resident who is alleged to have referred to minorities as ācolored peopleā in a YouTube video is being removed from an Ocean View School District committee, effective immediately.
During a heated three-hour meeting Tuesday night, the district board voted 4-1 to remove Gracey Larrea-Van Der Mark from its Citizens Oversight Committee for Measure R, which oversees expenditures related to a voter-approved bond measure for school facility improvements. Trustee Norm Westwell dissented.
Larrea-Van Der Markās use of the phrase was reportedly used in a YouTube video she uploaded in 2017 showing protesters at an anti-racism workshop.
According to the OC Weekly, Larrea-Van Der Mark wrote: āThis meeting was being ran by the elderly Jewish people who were in there. The colored people were there doing what the elderly Jewish people instructed them to do.ā
Dozens of people packed the board meeting. Several of Larrea-Van Der Markās supporters criticized trustees for discussing the issue, which they called āpolitically motivated.ā Some claimed trustee Gina Clayton-Tarvin, who appointed Larrea-Van Der Mark to the committee and then called for her removal when the allegations surfaced, was trying to stifle free speech.
Other speakers supported Clayton-Tarvinās push to remove her.
Clayton-Tarvin and others also have urged the city of Huntington Beach to remove Larrea-Van Der Mark from its Finance Commission. City Councilman Patrick Brenden, who appointed her to the commission, said last week that he would investigate the complaints against her.
A few Ocean View employees vented their frustration Tuesday over gossip on social media and implored trustees to refocus their attention on students.
Larrea-Van Der Mark, who was absent from the meeting, did not respond to requests for comment afterward.
Speaker Kathy Carrick said using politically correct language has āgotten out of controlā and added that if every board member were asked to step down for using a politically incorrect term, āweād have an empty dias.ā
Joe DeVore scolded the school board for not asking for Larrea-Van Der Markās side of the story before voting on whether to remove her. He said trustees ātaintedā the right to due process and took ālittle snippets out of context and used it for [Clayton-Tarvinās] agenda.ā
āIf she hasnāt responded, donāt remove her,ā DeVore said.
Others said Larrea-Van Der Mark wasnāt capable of objectively representing the Ocean View community.
Victor Valladares shared his experience of stepping down from a city panel after receiving national attention for taking a Donald Trump piƱata to a rally for the then- presidential candidate and encouraging protesters to destroy it. He also passed out posters depicting Trump in a sexual manner.
āWeāre appointed officials held to a different standard,ā Valladares said.
After the public comment period, Clayton-Tarvin and Westwell dominated the board debate.
Holding a stack of papers showing screenshots of Larrea-Van Der Markās online comments, Clayton-Tarvin said she appointed her knowing they had differing political backgrounds but raised concerns about her after hearing from community members.
Larrea-Van Der Markās comments, Clayton-Tarvin said, promote ābigotryā and arenāt reflective of Ocean View.
āItās free speech but itās also hate speech,ā she said. āWe donāt have to promote it. We donāt have to foster it. Weāre an educational institution thatās supposed to be inclusive of all our children.ā
As some in the audience shouted for Clayton-Tarvinās removal, board President Jack Souders repeatedly called for order, warning community members that he would clear the room if the heckling continued.
Westwell contended that Larrea-Van Der Markās critics, including some of his colleagues, were āwillfully and intentionally misrepresenting the truthā about a person he had known for more than two years and didnāt have a āracist bone in her body.ā
He asked the speakers who supported Larrea-Van Der Markās removal whether they had reached out to her. Two said they had.
Supt. Carol Hansen said the district made multiple attempts to contact Larrea-Van Der Mark via phone and email. Larrea-Van Der Mark denied that in a message to the Daily Pilot before the meeting.
āDo you believe her to be a racist?ā Westwell asked Hansen.
āI donāt think itās appropriate for me to answer those questions at this time,ā Hansen said.
Westwell then asked how Hansen determined that the board should discuss removing the committee member.
āThat is my analysis of multiple emails received,ā Hansen said.
āHow are you able to understand perceptions of others?ā
āThatās my judgment in making the best decision for the district,ā Hansen said, adding that this wasnāt an issue they should be spending their time on.
Not long after Soudersā warning, he ordered the audience to leave the room while trustees discussed how to proceed with the meeting. Hansen called Huntington Beach police to the scene.
The audience was allowed to return, and trustees voted on the matter shortly afterward.
āIf I had any questions before I came here tonight, they were answered by the public comments by people who came to the microphone,ā Souders said.
āIn the future,ā he added, āIām going to play this more harshly because Iām not going to let this get out of control the way they did tonight.ā
Larrea-Van Der Markās online activity has received heightened attention since she spoke in support of Huntington Beachās plan to file a lawsuit against California to challenge the legality of state mandates that expand protections for undocumented immigrants.
The OC Weekly reported on the ācolored peopleā comment days after the City Council approved the lawsuit early this month.
It isnāt clear when Larrea-Van Der Mark made the comments, which have been deleted.
Twitter: @vegapriscella
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