Jon Tigges, a parent who was arrested at a Loudoun County School Board meeting in Virginia on June 22, said he received “outpouring” support from across the country. In addition to receiving phone calls, texts, and tweets, Tigges picked up snail mail the day before upon returning from camping. “It resonates with so many people just how close we are to collapse as a country. They are cheering for us,” he told The Epoch Times on July 1.
“One of the blessings and unexpected secondary consequences of censorship has been that people only feel comfortable sharing face to face because they don’t want to get doxed or they don’t want to lose their job,” said Tigges. So he started “Patriot Pub,” a weekly in-person gathering in mid-April. At these meetings, people dined, discussed, and cussed together. “And the stuff we cuss about, we decide we’re going to do something about it, and that’s begun in the room.”
Six of the Loudoun County Public Schools board members allegedly infiltrated a private Facebook group to collect a target list of parents opposed to critical race theory and dox them. Some parents obtained screenshots and reported them to the county sheriff’s office. The case is currently under investigation.
Former state senator Dick Black, dubbed by his constituents in the board room as “the man who brought down the house,” was the last speaker from the public at the June 22 school board meeting. The school board ended public comment and retreated from the board room immediately after Black’s speech.
Speakers self-organized lines on both sides of the aisle and carried on making comments as scheduled, without the school board present. People who couldn’t speak as scheduled needed to stay and talk to “let it out of their system,” according to Tigges.
The superintendent later declared the gathering an unlawful assembly, and the county sheriff’s office began evicting the room. Refusing to leave, Tigges was arrested for trespassing. His court date is on July 21. In his view, the sheriff’s office took an unlawful order from the school superintendent. He said he would pursue legal means to challenge the decision.
BY TERRI WU
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