I made this petition to hold Knox County's School Board, a group that is voted for by the public but represents non-voting minors, accountable for the actions of three members in conflict with their governing regulations. This issue affects not just the students, teachers, and parents of our schools the entire Knoxville community. Until the board has a defined process for handling complaints, we need to take action ourselves. If you also see the need for change, please sign this petition!

Recently, the Knox County Board of Education Ethics Committee dismissed a complaint against three of its members: Kristi Kristy (board chair, district 9), Susan Horn (district 5), and Betsy Henderson (district 6). This complaint regarded alleged meetings between the three to seek an outside lawyer to deal with the district's legal case on mask mandates and the ways in which they represented the boards opinion.

Despite the majority opinion of the board that no outside counsel was needed, the three attended a city council meeting, thus violating open meeting laws. A previous vote indicated that most of the board had faith in the legal department, but recordings and testimony of other attendees indicate that the women spoke as if they represented the entirety of the board.

Despite the clear evidence that these members were violating at least one section their operations code, B-112, by not "harmoniously working with other board members" or "accept[ing] the will of the majority vote in all cases and give[ing] support to the resulting action", the case was dismissed.

Officially, the reason that the case was dismissed is because the ethics board is not designed to handle such matters; it is mainly in place to prevent corruption and conflicts of interest. Clearly, the board must find a new channel for handling complaints on other issues.

It is also fairly suspicious, however, that shortly after this was dismissed, the district received permission to lift the federal mask mandate as the case against them entered mediation. Further investigation into the alleged misconduct could have diverted resources away from the new agreement. Are these members really innocent, or did they just get away with something because nobody wanted to stall the case?

Whether or not you support mask mandates in schools, it is unreasonable to support clear deceit. Allowing these three board members to remain in office sets a precedent: the rules don't matter. If you can get away with it, you can do whatever you want. A core founding principle of the United States is rule of law. The very schools they represent teach that the law applies to everyone, regardless of political, social, or economic status.

Until the board has a clear process to resolve complaints internally, it is up to the community to set things straight. By using the number of voters for each district represented by the three accused and weighing it by the turnout to vote on that ballot (some were elected on presidential primary ballots, inflating turnout), it was determined that almost 15000 Knoxvillians (who would have voted in the election regardless of other ballot components) voted for these positions. 8000 people signing this petition would be significant; it would show that more than half of the number of people than originally participated in the vote that put them in office want them out.

Those living in the districts represented by Kristy, Horn, and Henderson deserve trustworthy representatives, but this hurts everyone. All students in the county are at the mercy of the decisions made by this board, as well as their families, educators, and other staff. Schools are the heartbeat of a community, but that heart becomes sick when 3 out of 9 members- 1/3- throw the rules aside to get what they want.

The least we can do is demand from our board representatives what they expect from students- honesty, fairness, and impartiality.