STORY UPDATED: check for updates below.
Does a video show students serving a lawsuit at a Virginia school board meeting? No, that's not true: Although students did present a so-called "affidavit" disputing the Loudoun County Public Schools mask mandate to the Loudoun County School Board during a meeting, the document did not represent any legitimate legal action against the board.
The claim appeared in a video posted to Facebook by conservative radio talk show host Dan Bongino and published on June 8, 2022. The title of the video is:
Liberal VA school board STUNNED when students serve lawsuit at meeting
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Thu Jun 9 16:18:35 2022 UTC)
The video, which was taken during the Loudoun County School Board meeting on February 8, 2022, doesn't show students serving a lawsuit against the board. Rather, the students presented several copies of a document titled "Notice by Affidavit of Remonstrance and Maladministration" to the board members. The full-length video of the February 8 school board meeting shows that the incident followed a public comment that started at the 4:01:35 mark explaining the purpose of the document. At the 4:02:39 mark, the students were called upon by the individual making the comment to "deliver" the copies of the document.
In an email sent on June 9, 2022, Wayde Byard, public information officer for Loudoun County Public Schools, forwarded Lead Stories the school district's response to the incident, which was also published shortly after the school board meeting:
During the public comment period of the Loudoun County School Board's February 8 meeting, several meeting attendees provided documents titled 'Notice by Affidavit of Remonstrance and Maladministration' for several School Board members and Superintendent Dr. Scott Ziegler.
While these documents outline a number of concerns from community members, the papers are not legal pleadings and do not appear to have been filed in any court of law.
The document was a response to the Loudoun County Public Schools mask mandate, which required students and staff to wear masks even though Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed an executive order that banned mask mandates (executive order linked here) in schools. At the time of the school board meeting, a temporary restraining order against the executive order allowed Virginia school districts to choose to keep their mask mandates in place.
Updates:
-
2022-06-10T16:47:59Z 2022-06-10T16:47:59Z Added link to affidavit document.
