The Burlington School Board meeting Tuesday night took unusual turns —literally. Board member Miriam Stoll got up from her seat and turned a cartwheel — a pretty good one, too.
The gymnastics move was Stoll’s attempt to dispel tension after a heated public comment session. During it, Burlington High School freshman Kolby LaMarche suggested to the board that he was being persecuted at school for backing Donald Trump.
“As a student who has been harassed for supporting president-elect Donald J. Trump, I blame in part the teachings of schools for their actions of their students,” LaMarche said to the board.
He said school teachings “have been shown to provoke students to be bigoted and violent to any who oppose them” and added: “As a student of Burlington school district I am asking for a new look into what students are being taught.”
LaMarche concluded by repeating a George Washington saying about the First Amendment: “If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”
Most of the board members were silent after LaMarche’s statement. Stoll responded briefly, though. Without taking a political stance, she said that she was proud of LaMarche for expressing a view that might be different from what others believe. She added, “I’m very saddened to hear that you have been in any way ridiculed or treated poorly at school for your views.”
She also addressed concerns that people had brought up about cuts to the school library. Then, in an effort to break the tension, Stoll — a generally staid representative who asks probing questions about budgets and taxes — announced her intention to do something “that maybe will make people laugh” — and cartwheeled in front of the crowd.
The move evoked laughter and friendly applause at the meeting in the Edmunds Middle School library.* Stoll got back in her seat and the board went back to business, discussing audits, school repairs and class offerings.
By Wednesday morning, Stoll’s free-spirited acrobatics weren’t playing well with Burlington resident Helen Hossley, a regular attendee of school board meetings who was in the audience Tuesday night. She emailed Stoll to say her response to LaMarche was patronizing and inadequate.
“He has serious concerns about his safety, otherwise why did he bother to take the time to address the school board,” Hossley wrote. “He apparently isn’t being heard by the leadership at the high school and to follow up your act with a cartwheel was absurd.”
Hossley copied the school board and also posted her email on the Support Our Burlington Schools Facebook page. It generated a range of comments. Some said Hossley mischaracterized Stoll’s remarks.
Others chimed in with broader comments about whether students who support Trump are being allowed to exercise freedom of speech in the public schools of a city and state that voted overwhelmingly for Democrat Hillary Clinton.
At Burlington High School, “a very low number” of students supported Trump in the campaign, said Jacob Bucci, a BHS senior, student representative on the school board, and one of the editors of the Burlington High School newspaper, the Register.
About 6 percent of students said they supported Trump in an informal poll by the Register, and about 12 percent supported Trump in a mock election at the school, Bucci said.
Bucci, who has interviewed LaMarche about his Trump support for the Register, was at Tuesday’s board meeting and said the freshman deserved his say.
Bucci said he couldn’t really comment on whether Trump supporters had freedom of expression at BHS.
“I think [LaMarche] brought up an interesting point. It’s hard for me to say because I’m not in his shoes,” Bucci said. “I think if he has concerns about his safety and problems with his education he has a right to bring it up to the administration and to the school board and that opinion should be respected.”
LaMarche volunteered for Trump leading up to the election, said Darcie Johnston, director of the Trump campaign in Vermont. He waved signs, knocked on doors and repeatedly cleaned up a large Trump/Pence sign in Williston that was defaced almost nightly.
“Kolby would go out and clean it up and get it back in decent shape to get it put back up,” Johnston said.
LaMarche talked about being picked on at school for supporting Trump, Johnston said. “We just supported him and appreciated the work he did for us and, you know, tried to make sure that everybody feels, ‘safe’ I guess is the word.”
The campaign did not go after the youth vote in Vermont very assertively, she added.
“I know that we had folks that tried to put some stuff up at UVM and some of the other campuses and it just disappeared,” she said. “As fast as it went up, it was gone. We really stopped trying … The other side preached tolerance but we quickly found out they are not very tolerant and I think that’s what Kolby found at Burlington High School.”
Burlington Superintendent of Schools Yaw Obeng defended the school district in an email to Seven Days Wednesday.
“I have not heard of any student experiencing bullying because of their support for Trump. I saw students with Trump T-shirts and hats during the campaign. I believe Kolby’s comments were societal statements about how individuals get treated with his viewpoint,” Obeng wrote.
Burlington High School interim principal Tracy Racicot did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Below is an edited video of the meeting, courtesy of the Regional Educational Television Network.
*Correction, December 16, 2016: An earlier version of this story misstated the location of Tuesday’s school board meeting.
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
Instead of blaming the school and whining about students bothering him, maybe this kid ought to study the constitution and free speech issues. If he chooses to espouse unpopular opinions that harm nonwhite and/or non-Christian people, then he needs to accept the consequences. After all, better people than him with much better cause have paid the ultimate price for free speech. This kid’s problems have nothing to do with being a Trump fanboy and everything to do with being an entitled brat who thinks the world should revolve around him. Precious little sneauxflake.
This young man should be commended for bringing this up when it is not the popular choice in his school. He should not be persecuted or ridiculed for his political views. Regardless of your views you should ALWAYS have the right and feel safe in our schools to voice them.
Think what we are missing here is that in any political arena , its a debate and trying to convince the general public their side. Its up to the public to decide whom is or is not telling the facts. and study the facts out. WE have a super school with BHS and so many great teachers. i give credit to any student who stands up and speaks out for his/her beliefs whether we agree or disagree with them. I for one do believe that something is missing when you have a school full of students who vote i think it said 96% one side, Most states were divided 50-50. Who is preaching to them to perhaps misguide them . are there no enough teachers who are encouraging the other side to preach like this young man did. so there is a problem we need to agree with. and everyone is scared to speak out. perhaps this should be checked out by the school board. Nobody can dispute the figures are so lopsided. Again, my hats off to students from all sides , all parties, all races, and all sexes. and in closing, because this is America, we have these rights to free speech without being threatened. Anyone who threatens another should be punished. Teachers and/or students included. God Bless America and our rights to free speech and to vote for whom we believe would be the best person.
This article just goes to show that all the liberals that are teaching the kids not to be bullies only mean it when the person agrees with them. If you disagree the ant bully gloves come off and they no longer play by their own rules. And Mr. Obeng there appears to be a student that is stating that he has experienced threatening behavior because of his political beliefs his name is Kolby LaMarche.
Nobody deserves to be attacked. I hope this student will work with the proper officials to cite examples that can be investigated for veracity – as any student in such a situation should do.
However, changing curriculum where the sole barometer of success is a 50:50 split in political opinions is wildly dangerous. It assumes one cause – teachers – which has about as much merit as claims of illegal voting. Assuming a victim mentality for being challenged on ideas is right out of the Faux News playbook.
I hope Mr. LaMarche reflects on how his candidate has yet to offer a single policy proposal. Or how his candidate has spent inordinate time personally attacking others. Empathy is not just a lesson for the “other side.”
Tiki I’m sure you were not a Trump supporter but you can’t honestly think Mr. Trump has no policy plans. He has already saved 1100 jobs and he has,not been in office for a single day yet. Did Obama save even one good paying job in his 2932 days in office? I dont think he saved any good paying jobs and the ones he did create where low pay positions. Lets not fool ourselves and think Hillary would have done a thing for Americas working people. I bet you and your kids are the type of people I was referring to in my earlier post, let’s all play nice till things don’t go my way, then we will threaten and bully people and say the election was rigged by the Russians.
Dear Citizen- yes Obama did save more than 1100 jobs in his 2932 days in office. Remember, he engineered a bailout of GM which saved about 30,000 jobs directly, which kept other tertiary jobs safe, probably yours, from disappearing thanks to the lovely economic meltdown brought to you by another Republican administration where 800,000 jobs PER MONTH were disappearing. But your selective memory doesn’t recall this, which distubs those of us with strong memories who recall quite accurately those events.
Dear Matt first I remember very clearly the Bush administration very well and probably agree with you that the Republican party of the early 2000’s was not what America needed. That is why just like I’m sure you did I voted for the change Obama was offering in 2008. Since then President Obama has fallen short when it comes to the positive changes he spoke of. Instead our country has fallen out of favor on the world stage, our homeland has been attacked by Islamic terrorist, and North Korea and Iran are becoming Nuclear powers. At home the government gives us fake unemployment figures because they stop counting the people that have been out of work over 6 months and wages are stagnate. And by the way Matt Obama did not save those jobs at GM the tax payer of this country paid for that bailout. Those are just a few of the reasons myself and millions of other hard working Americans left the ways of the failing Democrats and moved in a new direction with a New Republican Party led by Trump. The longest memory in the world does you no good if you only remember fairy tales.
So, other than cartwheels, what does the school board propse to ensure that the political views and free speech of all students are protected? It seems Supt. Obeng pretty much told the kid “no big deal, that’s life.” That said, the next time a student expresses similar concerns publicly I would expect the same response from Obeng, and maybe even a cartwheel. Mr. LaMarche you have now learned a very valuable lesson about the behavior and moral fiber of politically correct elitist “adults”; don’t ever say BHS failed to teach a valuable lesson.