Howard County parents: Suit was needed to prevent school board ‘gridlock’

The Baltimore Sun Editorial Board recently labeled two Howard County parents as entitled bullies who file lawsuits when they don’t like a vote (“Howard County has a school (board) bullying problem,” Dec. 23). It further compared them to Donald Trump supporters who go to court when not happy.

There is more nuance to this story your readers deserve to know.

We, Kim Ford and Traci Spiegel, are selfmade business women who are products of public schools. Kim grew up in Laurel, paid her way through college, manages over

100 people in the tech industry and has been essential and working in-person since March. Traci grew up in a low-income neighborhood in Cleveland, the daughter of an autoworker and, like Kim, paid her own way through Penn State and owns her own business. Oh, and one of us is a registered Democrat who voted for Joe Biden.

We have never filed a lawsuit until now. The journey to that action came after four months of action.

We each have children with the Howard County Public School System. We started watching Board of Education meetings and were in complete shock at countless 4-4 gridlock ties on key votes. The most confusing part was the even number of board members allowing stalemates. We had never witnessed such dysfunction in a business setting.

We spent months watching meetings, emailing the school board, filing petitions, filling out surveys, attending rallies, attending school-sponsored meetings with our principal, writing our superintendent and ultimately consoling our freshmen when their classmate took her own life the day after all-virtual was announced another four months out.

We also understood when COVID-19 numbers are high, virtual is the answer. But when numbers are lower, why is there no plan in place?

A friend introduced us to an attorney who offered pro-bono assistance. An attorney with four children in the system. His research revealed the student member’s vote as unconstitutional and declared “undemocratic” by Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh. The board couldn’t find its own way out of gridlock so we decided to help.

It’s important to note the day after the school system announced it was going all virtual until April 15, 2021, adults started sending unkind tweets to the student member, a full month prior to our suit. Yet you, along with Superintendent Michael Martirano, have linked our lawsuit to the bullying.

It is shameful that adults would bully a minor. It is also shameful for adults to put a student in this position.

We want gridlock removed and the board to do its job. Numbers will fall at some point. Why not have a plan in place for when that occurs? What is the hidden agenda stopping the school board from doing its job?

If you want to paint us as affluent parents who file lawsuits and act like bullies when we don’t get our way, then I guess you can. But there is more to this story.

Kim Ford, Cooksville and Traci Spiegel, Woodbine