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OAKLEY, California, February 19, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — Members of a northern California school board were caught on a hot mic belittling parents who urgently want their schools to reopen.

“They want their babysitters back,” said Lisa Brizendine, an Oakley Union School District trustee, during a pre-meeting session they thought was private, yet was already open to the public online.

In discussing a contentious interaction with a frustrated parent, board member Kim Beede, communicated her own attitude, “B-tch, if you are going to call me out, I am going to f-ck you up,” she said, to much laughter.

Trustee Richie Masadas theorized that parents wanted their children back in school so they could get high during the day. “My brother had a delivery service for medical marijuana. The clientele were parents with their kids in school,” he said, eliciting more jovial affirmation.

A brief discussion was led by Superintendent Greg Hetrick on how the board might institute a hard time limit to public comments, requiring them to be prerecorded with the system cutting off citizens at precisely three minutes.

In response, upset parents initiated an online petition calling for the board to “resign immediately due to their egregious behavior,” or be recalled.

One comment on the petition website stated, “I am speechless. They all should resign … These people should never be around children!” Another wrote, “The assumption that I would rather do drugs over care for my children is awful.”

Another parent from Oakley, Ashley Stalf, who was featured on The Ingraham Angle last night, said that many “moms and dads were so appalled” at this behavior believing the board members “were advocates as much as we were for our children. And after yesterday’s comments, and jokes, and laughing, and just genuine insincerity, it really makes me question what their true motives are.”

In a written statement, Hetrick apologized for the “unfortunate and truly inappropriate comments made that were heard by many. These comments, are not typical and more importantly they are not what the community should expect from our school district … The comments made were not in alignment with our vision and are definitely not what any of us stand for as leaders. I know that we lost trust with the community.”

According to one member of Open Schools California, a volunteer-run group that wants school campuses to reopen safely, the larger issue is the growing number of parents who want to see the schools opened again, following the guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control.

Many school districts in California have kept their schools closed to in-person learning for almost a year now, causing even, in one case, the city of San Francisco to file a lawsuit against its own school district in order to force its full opening.

The data provided in the lawsuit includes evidence of a “mental health crisis among school-aged children.” The University of California San Francisco (UCSF) hospital “has seen a 66% increase in the number of suicidal children in the emergency room, and a 75% increase in youth who required hospitalization for mental health services,” according to KTLA.

“The medical evidence is clear that keeping public schools closed is catalyzing a mental health crisis among school-aged children in San Francisco,” said Dr. Jeanne Noble of the UCSF Emergency Department.

Given that the threat of a COVID-19 infection remains essentially irrelevant to school-aged children due to their 99.997% survival rate, and for those under 70 this virus remains less of a threat than influenza, former White House Coronavirus Task Force member Dr. Scott Atlas explained last December, “The point about the schools is really critical because this is the most irrational public policy probably in modern history. Children have virtually zero risk of getting a serious complication, virtually zero risk of dying … You don’t lockdown the children because you are personally afraid. That’s totally outrageous.”

When Laura Ingraham asked Stalf if she at least believed Beede should resign due to her profane comments, she declined to say so directly but did affirm “I don’t want that kind of person dictating my child’s education.”

Ingraham responded, “Ashley, I appreciate it, I’ll be the one that calls for it. Someone who speaks that way about parents who are worried about their kids not learning should go into a different line of work.”

According to news reports, Brizendine, who made the “babysitters” remark, tendered her resignation on Thursday. Whether other resignations will be forthcoming remains to be seen.