Sally Hunt and Christy Chong Suggest Locking School Board Meeting Doors for Security and ‘Buzzing’ In People

Rookie School Board members Sally Hunt and Christy Chong on Tuesday suggested the door to the board’s workshop meeting room could be locked, and people “buzzed” in as needed, for security’s sake, until they were reminded by the superintendent–not in so many words–that that would be illegal: open government meetings may not be held behind locked doors, though this board held a possibly illegal “huddle” behind the superintendent’s own locked door a few months ago.

The remark by the two board members, on the board for 16 months, reflects to what extent they remain ill-informed about open meeting laws and casually comfortable with talk of restricting transparency.




Again absent from the room–she spoke by phone–Hunt for the second time in two months coyly suggested that “I am not going to be on the board that much longer, but again gave no indication about why or when she would resign–presumably for real this time–nor did fellow board members press her for more clarity.

The timing of a school board member’s resignation is not irrelevant: it may decide whether the seat is eligible for an election so it can be filled for its term’s remaining two years, or, if the elected official is more inclined to lock the seat into a political appointment, the term may be filled by a governor appointee. The longer Hunt delays a decision, the less time she gives to potential candidates who could prepare a run.

Hunt made her evasive comment during a workshop after Board member Cheryl Massaro proposed that the board reevaluate the need for a school resource deputy at each of its workshops. Those workshops generally are barely attended by the public and can drag on for hours, running up the district’s hourly bills for deputy security. They also take place in a building with security, though not metal detectors: while it is unlawful to walk into the Government Services Building with a weapon, anyone can do so unhindered, including board members.

Board meetings held in the first-floor chamber always have a deputy or two, but that’s also where, during the board’s monthly meetings back in the days of vilifying LGBTQ students, of Covid and of book bans, tempers would flare and disrespectful behavior would grip room occupants on both sides of the dais.




But there’s never been security issues at workshops, in a large conference room on the third floor of the GSB. Hunt has taken some public comments during workshop as overly aggressive, but she tends to see anything directed at her without some degree of regal deference as micro-aggressive. The board never had a deputy at its workshops until Hunt last May said she felt unsafe in that conference room, where she sits at a table with her back against the wall and where there’s only one point of entry or exit.

“We never had security before,” Massaro said. “The only time really it wouldn’t be necessary if there were really some hot button topics. Maybe. We never had any issues really, at these meetings,” Massaro said. “It’s always been at the evening meeting, which we do need, and I understand that, but that’s a cost we do not need to be making.” When the district hires deputies outside of contractual hours, the cost is $48 per hour, according to the current contract. Workshops have lasted more than four hours. Tuesday’s fell just shy of three, for a billable cost of $144. Hunt was not in the room. Nor was Board member Colleen Conklin, who also participated by phone, but had left by the time the conversation turned to security.

Hunt still recommended having security. “Personally it does make me uncomfortable being in a room with one access point,” Hunt said. “We have that now locked door that has been installed that never seem to be locked. If that door could be locked during sessions or, you know, someone can be buzzed in or security downstairs” could buzz someone in.




That, of course, would be against the law: meetings of elected boards must be open and accessible to the public. No locked doors allowed. Hunt is generally uncomfortable around the public: “I don’t love that there are meetings even held to the, you know, available to the public, where there’s a one entrance into a room situation with no security. I mean, I just don’t think that’s smart. But, you know, again, it’s well known that I am not going to be on the board that much longer, relatively. So if that’s something that you guys want to start to move away from, that’s up to the board. You guys decide.”

Board member Christy Chong, who once referred to a reporter’s presence at a public meeting as “intrusive,” favored the door-locking idea, “if everybody is in here,” she said.

“The meeting has to be accessible to the public,” Superintendent LaShakia Moore told her.

“Like, the whole time?” Chong said.

The whole time.

Massaro said the board has “survived the single board entry for many, many, many, many years.” Law enforcement could be requested only on certain occasions, she said. Moore doesn’t want the responsibility of deciding when a deputy is requested. “It has to be very clear for us,” Moore said. “When the board asked that we have law enforcement at every meeting, we’ve done that. If you say you want them at every business meeting, we will do that. But we just cannot be the ones to determine when we should or should not.” She asked at least 72-hour notice.




The consensus seemed to be to end in-room security at workshops. Will Furry, the board chair, would leave it to individual board members to email the superintendent with a request for security at any given meeting, should that member feel the need (assuming the member will show up: Hunt has been missing enough functions that last month Massaro complained she was not doing her share).

Moore, who often reminds certain board members of the larger picture, cautioned the board “not to target specific topics as topics that may be contentious. I think that may be a slippery slope as well,” she said. “Because people will be watching that to say, oh, well, it’s always when they discuss–X.” As board members seemed to have no idea how to define the parameters of a request for a deputy (Furry vaguely and contradictorily said it wouldn’t be tied to an agenda item, but to the anticipation of large crowds), Moore asked the board members to think about it before the next meeting–in other words, to think before they blurt.

District departments are under an edict to cut 4 percent from their budgets. Massaro said the board should find a way to cut costs, too.

The last time shots were fired at a school board meeting goes back to 2010 in Panama City, when a resident fired four shots at board members and the superintendent. No one was injured. Last July, four men were charged for bringing guns to a school board meeting in Gloucester County, Va., though none had taken out or shown the guns: a sheriff’s deputy happened to notice the grip of a gun concealed by one of the men’s shirt, and he confronted him and others after they left the meeting. The incident nevertheless led to a two-hour lockdown.