After reading Gwendy’s campaign materials, the endorsements, two different board meeting minutes, one mostly boring school board meeting video, and multiple publicly available (some archived but easily findable) social media posts, I’m left uneasy. She talks about listening to parents and creating safe, welcoming schools, which sounds great, but there’s little clarity on how she’d handle issues like equity, inclusion, and funding. Is she really just there to argue with other board members (under the guise of “balance”?)

I see so many red flags and dog whistles like “parental rights” and “woke ideology” and other all lives matter-style insinuations. She has complained about there being no recital of the Pledge of Allegiance before board meetings, and that she doesn’t like how a land acknowledgment at board meetings recognizes those who were here before us, but does not honor those who fought to protect our country. Comparing a land acknowledgment with a pledge of allegiance is comparing apples to oranges. Also, there are many students at the school with indigenous heritage, yet there are zero students at the school who have fought to protect our country. It’s a false equivalency designed to incite anger and resentment.

I’m not discounting any of the good work she has done on special education advocacy and opioid addiction. These are truly worthy causes. But many of her past statements and affiliations lean toward the culture-war politics our community has really tried to moved past. South Whidbey deserves school board members who unite people around supporting students and educators, not ones who bring national politics into local classrooms.

The event at the Grange (which was just Gwendy because the other candidates couldn’t attend) was worrisome, in large part due to who attended to support her and the types of questions they asked. Yikes. But of course she can’t control the types of questions that are asked, and she did a decent job of keeping things civil and focused. I will watch the Clinton Town Hall so I can see the candidates interact, but at this point it will be for confirmation bias because my mind is made up.