Ding Dongs Mask Mania Aimed at Trustee

By now you've all heard that an EPISD Trustees home was vandalized shortly after voting in favor of the mask mandate at EPISD. He had also received comments that any rational person would see as a threat by members of the Ring the Bells Facebook group, administered by one of its founders, Kendall Jessup. 

Kendall Jessup and her BFF Bethany Hatch along with several other members of the group, participated in Insurrection Day on January 6th. They say they weren't part of any violence and didn't breech the capitol. 

We believe you. 

Anywho - for those of you keeping track at home that group is so far responsible for losing every election they tried to be a part of, the end of one trustee's political career, and in my opinion, quite possibly the vandalism of the trustee's home. 

Calm down Karen - before you threaten to sue me - I'm allowed to express an opinion, even if you don't like it. You don't scare me. (Stick around for the end of a political career. You're gonna wanna read that part.)

The trustee announced the act of vandalism at his home and the fact that his wife and sons were shook up about it. Rather than take a beat and think about how the vote became that controversial, Jessup appears to have been thinking with her ego and decided to jump on the post and attack the trustee saying that she was blamed without any evidence. 

No expression of something decent like, wow I'm really sorry that happened and its really bad that your family is shook up over the incident, but there is no information to suggest it was done by one of our supporters. 

Or perhaps, it is a shame this happened and I think we should all take a moment to collect ourselves and evaluate what is the best path forward for this community since we all clearly want what is best for our families, we just disagree on what that looks like. 

You know, something classy and decent.

Nope - she threw gas on the fire while simultaneously contradicting herself. If there was a way the ding dongs could make a bad situation worse, Kendall Jessup always seems to find it. Its like her super-power. An absolute void of common sense and political and messaging savvy. 

So in an effort to defend herself and the ding dongs - she says that they monitor the page and delete anything they feel is inappropriate. 

That, ladies and gentlemen, is an admission that there is inappropriate content published by the members of the group. 

There's no way around that. 

So she knows there is the danger of inappropriate content being posted on the page based on that admission.

And she has - on multiple occasions - posted "alerts" asking her members to read and comment on various Facebook posts - including one were the target of the vandalism had posted something in response to Bethany Hatch. 

So in my opinion its pretty clear that Jessup has knowledge that her membership is prone to inappropriate statements (by her own admission) then she - in my opinion - aims that angst and weaponizes it at people critical of her position by posting "alerts" and directing the users where to go. 

She's blown any credibility the ding dongs may have ever had. Which was zero to begin with. 

Collateral Damage

I don't know why Republicans think that standing in the way of public health somehow makes them look like that guy who stood in front of the tank in Tiananmen Square - but it doesn't.  EPSID Trustee Daniel Call appears to have played the martyr to the ding dong crowd by posting comments on his Facebook like saying he was taught to stand up for what is right even if he's the only one standing. 

Absolute political theater. 

In the session held before all the ding dongs showed up, Call can bee seen in the meeting wearing a mask. Then when the ding dongs show up - guess what?

No mask. 

His colleagues felt that it was important to stand up for defenseless students and community health - how on earth is Call taking a position that puts defenseless students in harms way, in any way, "the right thing"?

I'm sure there are elected bodies across this country that had the best of intentions and made policy that had an unintended consequence of getting someone hurt - or worse, leading to death. But short of voting for war, I can't think of a situation where an elected official had all the best data available to him to make a decision to avoid putting someone's life in danger - and chose to ignore that information and voted the opposite way. 

Here's what else bothers me about the martyrdom of Trustee Call. 

Its the hill he chose his political career to die on. 

He either completely misjudged public sentiment - or he was only willing to listen to the small but vocal minority of people that were opposed to keeping our children safe. (I thought those people were supposed to be "pro-life"?) Either way, his political career is done. Even being a conservative, people looked at him as a non-extremist and reasonable person. 

Until he took the most extremist and unreasonable vote possible. 

It would be one thing to stake your political career on something tangible or for the benefit of students. But did he choose the political hill to die on in exchange for something good for his students and community? Was it for a new library for one of his schools? Was it for a ending some sort of district policy or process corruption?

Nope. 

It was mask mania. 

And to top it all off - he quite possibly jeopardized the district's legal position by saying that its unenforceable. He's got a fiduciary commitment as part of his office that he appears to have run afoul of. 

Even if the legislature intervenes - or the courts eventually find in favor of the governor, he's torched his career - with nothing to show for it but controversy. 

The Karen Thing

One more thing before I forget. Most of the ding dongs were upset because I said they were mostly Trump supporter wealth white people from the westside. The funny thing about all of this controversy with the mask mandate is that most of the angst from the ding dongs seems to aimed at one trustee, despite the fact that 6 of them voted in favor of it. 

Why is that pray tell? 

Because he's the only other westside trustee. 

Thank you for further underscoring my point.