Kim McGahey wrote about the May 13 Summit School District Board of Education meeting in his column “School board should not have silenced parents,” the parents being people opposed to the board’s proposed equity policy.

I participated in that meeting by Zoom, and I find McGahey’s version of it lacking in credibility. To test his claim that some attendees were deliberately silenced, I examined the recorded transcript of the online chat comments, which were received at the meeting. I tallied comments simply as “for” or “against” the equity policy, allowing only one opinion per writer. The result was 64 for and 75 against the policy. Most participants made simple, brief comments. Some, however, chiefly from the against camp, ignored brevity, interrupted others and spoke often without being recognized. There was a sharp contrast in behavior among the two groups in that regard. Among those who favored the equity policy, only eight wrote two or more times while 31 of those opposed commented frequently, often vehemently. Those in opposition clearly dominated the public comment time and, from my viewpoint, in the fashion of a planned effort.

Notably, the board extended the public comment time first by 40 minutes and then by another 30 minutes to accommodate the crush of speakers. Moreover, I observed several behaviors of the against group, including that they complained loudly of unfairness toward their opinions. Throughout, some compared the equity policy to critical race theory and demanded that the board’s vote on the policy be delayed. By the end of the allocated comment time, terminated by the district attorney, few new voices were heard. A video of the Zoom portion of the meeting and a transcript of the online chat are available for viewing on the district’s website.