In the most heated Board of Education (BoE) Zoom meeting yet, the student representatives to the board hailing from Ithaca High School delivered a public rebuttal to the recent actions of the BoE concerning the allegations against Superintendent Luvelle “Big Luve” Brown. They condemned the board’s efforts to silence them, citing the mission statement of the district, which encourages district leaders to “gaslight, gatekeep, and, er, empower” students. BoE’s actions have garnered considerable press attention, as seen in the Ithaca Times and Ithaca Voice articles quoting interim BoE President Robert Aimlessly and displaying a video of him discarding a school lunch into the snow. The lunch District stakeholders have also spoken up to challenge the board’s treatment of the student reps and encourage them to illuminate the situation further. The situation reached its peak at the latest board meeting when the student representatives accused the board of attempting to silence them.
The rebuttal was followed by a few minutes of awkward silence as the students waited for a response and Aimlessly could be seen typing. Then, Aimlessly shared his screen with the hundreds of attendees, displaying a list of the full names and addresses of each of the student representatives. The students looked confused, and when no one spoke out because of the moderator’s control of attendee settings, one student requested that the list of addresses be taken down. Aimlessly ignored the request and instead posted a link in the chat. When meeting participants clicked on the link they were led to the popular website Reddit, specifically to a post that identified the full names and private addresses of the students accompanied by the message, “I’m sure they wouldn’t mind a visit.”
The meeting ended shortly after, without a response from the board members to the students’ statement or an explanation of the actions of the board president. Attendees were left feeling confused and, in the case of the students and their parents, violated. Since the meeting, members of the board have reportedly received many angry letters demanding the post be taken down as well as the resignation of Aimlessly, all of which have gone unaddressed.
“I’m honestly not surprised,” says one district stakeholder who prefers to remain anonymous. “‘This is a private issue’ can easily escalate to the public disclosure of sensitive information about minors.”
When requested for comment, Jason Trumble, principal of Ithaca High School, said, “This is what you get for messing with Big Luve and his Big Board.”
As of the week following the meeting, the Reddit post remains on the internet and has gathered a number of comments, some linking videos of the students’ perceived transgressions and some stating commenters’ intentions to intimidate the students. Parents worry about the safety of their children and the fitness of the board members, both those doxing the students and those complicit in the doxing, to serve the community. Parents and teachers have discussed creating a petition to take down the post and order the dismissal of Aimlessly, but have instead opted to dox the nine members of the BoE in retribution. Their addresses are listed in a Reddit post under the subreddit r/Ithaca.
APRIL FOOLS’!
