Fargo parents speak loud on several issues at School Board meeting

Photo by: Fargo Public School District
Photo by: Fargo Public School District

(Fargo, ND) -- In their first regular meeting since nixing, and bringing back, the Pledge of Allegiance, the Fargo School Board took more fire from parents at their Tuesday night gathering.

Many parents who spoke during the opening public comments still voiced concern with the direction of the district, even despite board members voting in a special meeting last week 8-1 to reinstate the pledge after intense backlash on the initial decision to remove it from the beginning of their meetings.

"Spectacularly, in the first month of this new board you've made us a national embarrassment as a district and as a community," said parent and former school board candidate Deven Styczynski. He was one of several parents who spoke during the meeting to call for board member Seth Holden to immediately resign from his position after the initial push to move away from the pledge.

Another parent who spoke at the meeting cited that their needed to be a 'clean slate' with the board, and called for a recall of all board members to take place in the shadow of the past few weeks.

The topic of safety for board members also came up, after many received several threats the past number of weeks.

"While the institution has crafted policies to ensure the safety of staff and our students, it is now clear that the safety of our school board members is another factor for consideration," argued one parent who spoke following a poster put up at the entrance of the district offices that read "better dead than red". Fargo Schools has said the act was hateful and an "attempt to instill fear."

A common sentiment amongst parent who spoke at the meeting was the focus on education and children in the district, not on possible decisions that may advance and sort of personal or political agenda.

The first day of school for Fargo Public School students is Thursday, August 25th.