Quorum Court - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. I'm going to call uh this March quorum court meeting to order. If you will uh we'd like to do stand and do the prayer and pledge if you'll join me. Dear heavenly father, we come to you tonight and bow in front of your majesty. We ask you to lay your hands on this meeting tonight and all the participants. Allow our hearts and minds to be open. Allow us to make effective and efficient decisions for the people of Washington County. These things we ask in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you everyone. And with that, we'll move to the adoption of the agenda. Do I have any motions with the agenda? Uh, Justice Koger.

Yes. Thank you, Judge. I'm I'd like to make a motion to remove item 10 from tonight's agenda and refer it to the county services committee for consideration at its March 30th, 2026 meeting, which will be the April meeting of the county services. And the reason I'm doing that is I even though we don't have an ordinance that requires that resolutions go through committee first, I think in in the for transparency and so that we everybody gets a chance to be more informed and and understand what we're doing. I think it's a good idea for resolutions to go through committee first and that's why I'm making that motion and I believe that skipping committee skips transparency and I don't believe that serves the public for those reasons. I move to

I have a motion to uh excuse me remand item number 10 to the next county services committee. Do I have a second? Second by Justice Bruns. Uh this is on the vote to uh refer item number 10 to the next county services committee. All those in favor? Those opposed? Mr. Allen, will you please call a role? This is to refer item number 10 to the next county services committee. Justice, yes. Justice Dean, yes. Justice Washington, yes. Justice Koger, yes. Justice Dennis,

no. Justice Rio Stafford, no. Justice Lemming, yes. Justice Ricker, yes. Justice Pond, yes. Justice Bruns, yes. Justice Wilson, no. Justice Mingill, no. Justice Rivera Lopez, yes. Item number 10 will be referred to the next county services committee and removed from tonight's agenda. Justice Masingill. Well, I was going to try to make the case to keep it on tonight's agenda, but Okay, guess it's too late. Justice Koger.

Thank you very much, judge. I have another motion. I'd like to make a motion this time to move item number 11 to the county services meeting for April, which will be held on March the 30th, 2026. I'm doing those for the same reasons I stated previously. I think skipping committee skips transparency and I believe that everyone here would benefit from being referred to committee of the whole. I have a motion to refer item number 11 to the next county services committee by JP Koger. Does that have a second? Second. A second by Justice Rio Stafford. Um okay. This justice massing would you like to talk on this one? Yeah.

Yeah. I'm against the motion. I mean, this is just a resolution. I don't think it uh really warrants going to committee. Same with the pre.

Great. Uh this is on the motion to pass to refer item number 11 to the next county services committee. Justice Wilson. Uh when I brought this resolution forward, I was willing to start in the committee process, but I was told that uh we we often go straight to um the regular quorum court meeting, I said that's fine with me either way, but since that decision was made several weeks ago, I say that it should stay on the agenda tonight. Um and if that's the way we've done it in the past, I don't think that we should change it. uh unless we have more discussion about I like to change things at the drop of a hat unless there's a very good reason. So that's my thoughts on that. I appreciate it.

Justice Wilson, I appreciate it, ladies and gentlemen, but we're going to have to keep the noise down so the justices can hear up here. Uh Justice Mingill. No, I'll say what I need to say. Okay, Justice Koger.

Thank you, Judge. I just want to say that in the past in 2021 when the Washington County right to life resolution was passed it went through committee first then to the full corn court. Recently the Ozark electric tax abatement came through to the committee then to the full corner by resolution. And every resolution that I've ever brought to this court has always gone through committee. So, I don't know who made that decision, but that's why I'm making a motion to move it to the county services so it can go through committee. All right, we'll take up the question. I have a motion to uh refer item number 11 to the next county services committee by Justice Koker and a second by Justice Rio Stafford. Mr. Allen, will you please call the role? Justice Hecky,

no. No. Justice Dean, no. Justice Washington, yes. Justice Koger, yes. Justice Dennis. No. Justice Rio Stafford. Yes. Justice Lemming. No. Justice Ricker. Yes. Justice Pond. No. Justice Bruns. No. Justice Wilson. No. Justice Massingill. No. Justice Rivera Lopez. No. That motion fails. We'll be back to the original agenda as amended with the referral of item number 10 to the next county services committee. Do I have a motion? Motion to accept the agenda.

I have a motion to approve the agenda as amended by Justice Dean, second by Justice Washington. All those in favor? Those opposed? The agenda has been adopted. Item number four are preliminary motions. Do we have any preliminary motions this evening? Justice Dean. Uh, thank you, Judge. I'd like to make a motion all ordinances and resolutions be read by title only. I have a motion to read ordinances and resolutions by title only by Justice Dean, second by Justice Limming. All those in favor?

Those opposed? Ordinances and titles or sorry, ordinances and resolutions will be read by titles only. Item number five is citizen comments. We have a 15 minute citizen comment period with a limit of three minutes per individual. Come forward, sir. If you'll push that bottom right button for me, we'll get you lit up.

Testing. Testing. You think I No, you guys get the luck. David Baltz, 4459 East Wyman Road. You guys get the luck of me going off script tonight because of what's happened so far. So, I I just would like to clarify really quickly. We are moving item 10 to the committee meeting. Correct. Okay. So, I am off script on this one. Then you're making a terrible mistake. The reason this is in front of you tonight because enforcement has tried for years and years. We have tried to get this to happen and nothing has happened. Your county workers are suffering at the hands of people that do not follow the law and are very very ill intent. I am very disappointed that time after time we come in here and tell you and tell you over and over they obeyed the law. They quagmire the system. They pollute our river. In this instance, I've got to meet more neighbors than ever. I have a neighbor behind me that says they push trash into the ravine and let it roll into our water supply, the west fork of the White River. You do nothing. We bring this to you to do something. Thank you. And you ignore it. I apologize to Sam. We thought we could get you some traction, sir. I am so sorry. You work so hard. Have a good night.

Thank you. Public comments. I'm Katherine Dunl in Springdale, Arkansas. I have this is just a thought question I want you all to take home and think about tonight and tomorrow. Why are you so threatened by students? Thank you. Thank you. Public comments.

Thank you. I received an email today that was quite disturbing to me and um it is a court case where we the Washington County is involved with um a lawsuit involving Tonictown, my hometown. And in that I see that this I think the Supreme Court made a correct and good decision especially after I read that lawsuit and the lawsuit is so rambling. I can't believe somebody had a law degree to even wrote it. And and uh but the the Supreme Court of Arkansas has reversed uh the order and he's has remanded it uh back to uh it's my understanding and Mr. Lester might be able to tell me better, but um reverse remanded courts of appeals open opinion vacated. I don't know what that means, but it has reversed from a lower court saying that what upheld Washington County's complaint and we were the initial um entity that filed this lawsuit and I plan later in the year to bring to this court a resolution. I don't know who files these lawsuits or who makes a decision to file these

lawsuits. I do know that you pay with tax dollars to file these lawsuits and I do believe that since you use tax dollars to do such that it should become a part of the decision to use that money from this quorum court. Thank you. Public comments. Justice Dennis, I'd

like to suspend the rules and increase the time by the amount of time that this JP is taken from the public. This is public time, not JP time. I would I'd admonish you for that and I would like the time given back to the public. Thank you. I have a motion to suspend the rules and increase public comments by three minutes. Is that sufficient, sir? for the time he we could still go ahead. Motion by Justice Dennis I hear second by Justice Dean. This is to suspend the rules and increase public comments by three minutes. All those in favor. Those opposed please continue. Hello. Thank you for allowing me to speak last time.

Pull that mic down. We have some auditory issues up here on the horseshoe. So just make sure you're speaking into the mic. Last time I was here, I was opposing um Sheriff Helder who um I felt his department was harassing me after I've been falsely accused. Um I've never been to jails before. It was through existing law who recently battled cancer. Um I was not impressed by Woods. Uh he wasn't Mr. Dickens seat. I still wish Mr. Dickens to win in his runoff. And I'm dealing with neighbors who um have hostility towards me because I'm from different origin. Um I dealed with black juveniles u before um and I asked somebody who is um who university wants to have statue for Richardson. He was fired by university. I asked him to get involved. I know he lost a wife, a son and a daughter. He didn't want to help. Um I asked him to appeal it to his um uh so-called people of his color to students to behave better at the uh public place where we resided at the federal um subsidized department complex. I ask Sheriff Cantrell now who am I asking to be removed like I asked with Taber and Reynolds with FPD um because they uh do get paid uh it's a stable uh paycheck yet uh once you go against them you say something different or try to take them to court you become as if they were enemies and I say I simply want for you to uh bring ordinance to the communities I don't want you to view me as person who went against somebody who rule your department. He was unjust. My ex-mother-in-law who passed, he was a D of an officer also like to put every guilt on me. But the neighbors, Trouts, who lost their grandkids, he were disabled. Anderson who was in uniform uh who has no family

um they um they just express hostility and me being from different origin, I want for people in uniform bring ordinance. So, I wanted to ask you to pay attention who your public officials are in uniform um to be on the web um through juveniles who were urinating in front of me, throwing rocks at me, accusing me of prejudice when they harassed me because they were black and I was white and I had to deal with black prejudice and nobody wants to talk about that. So me opposing um those uniform people um me writing about that to Biden who himself lost two kids and a son veteran writing to Trump. They say we voted for him with he had felony for no reason through black prosecutor who slept with a boyfriend and assigned the case against Trump. I said you have to behave no matter whom you voted for. You have to be uh polite. You have to follow civil norms. and um they oppose Judge Dickens and I support him. So they it's another issue that they use against me. I said we have to somehow find a line um fine line to live together and um it is why I'm against those officials and it's not that much prejudice issue but I think money for the Richardson monument

would wait and use for homeless people even I know he was fired from university but yeah your time's expired I appreciate it please take it under consideration maybe give to homeless animals that I vouch for I wrote book about Great. Thank you so much. Public comments.

Good evening. Can y'all hear me? Awesome. I'm here to talk about uh JP Wilson's resolution about good citizenship. So, I'm here to speak in my personal capacity. I'm Victor Rohos. Mr. Rojos, can you just pull that microphone down just a little bit? There you go.

Is that better? Okay. All right. Well, thank you. Um, so my statement reflects my own personal views, not my employer. Uh, I'm an educator who has taught at both elementary and secondary levels. I'm a licensed administrator at both the building and district levels. And I'm a former social studies teacher who has taught about the First Amendment and the freedoms it guarantees. Um, and those are freedoms that are lived and exercised every day in this country. This resolution takes issue with recent demonstrations by students in our communities. Um, these are demonstrations that I believe fall squarely within the protections of the United States Constitution. The right to free speech and the right to pet petition the government are not conditional. They apply to all people. They are fundamental. The US Supreme Court made this clear in 1969 Tinker versus De Moine when it held that students do not shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate. The court also emphasized that school officials do not possess absolute authority over their students. Students in school as well as out of school are persons under our constitution. And it's a reminder that it's just as relevant today as it was in 1969. Our students have to find a way to air their grievances. They were expressing their grievances in a way that is allowed in our democracy. I want students, and I think we all want students that are informed, engaged, and ready to contribute because it is needed now more than ever before. Regardless of where we stand on policy, we can agree that constitutional rights deserve to be respected and protected at every level. This resolution also calls on school districts to revisit their policies and procedures. To my knowledge, neither the

Arkansas Constitution nor state law provides a quorum court the authority to dictate or influence the operations of school districts. This res resolution itself recognizes that each district is governed by an elected board of education. Those boards are entrusted by their communities to make decisions in the best interest of their students. We should respect that structure and trust those elected officials to carry out their responsibilities. At its core, this is more than a single resolution. It's about whether we model for students the very civic principles that we teach them. Respect for constitutional rights, trust in our systems of governance, and a commitment to democratic participation. our students are watching and I appreciate it.

Thank you, Mr. Rohos. Further public comments.

I'll go ahead and take a stab at this. My name is Jason Tuck, 4246 Wyman Road. Current elected justice of the peace is Butch Pond. District 15 is also the same district Stewart Family Christmas LLC and Steuart Family Fireworks operating. I'm just going to keep it short. We're behind the resolution. We will be there at your next meeting. I like that. That is the process. I've been paying attention. Thank you. But we believe all businesses in your county, unincorporated, need to operate by the same standard. Just like the one you're going to ratify tonight, if I remember correctly, got a cup on the agenda. That business went through the right process. It is now here before you. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other public comments? Hi, my name is Angela Hines. I live at 1391 North Plum Tree Drive. Um, I am in Charles Dean's district and I want to quickly speak about Dr. Wilson's resolution that's coming up tonight. Just really briefly, um, here in the Arkansas Code that I have, um, I think it's important that we go into this with the correct legal, uh, understanding of the Arkansas law. And so under powers denied under legislative powers uh afforded to the county government and the quorum court we have right here item three any legislative act that applies to or affects the public school system. The only except that a county government may impose an assessment. So I do not see any of that in this resolution. I also here can point to a previous code that uh declares a resolution as a legislative act. So, this resolution is illegal, but I'll be happy to speak more about why I'm against it later. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other public comments for this moment? We're going to move forward with the agenda. Uh next up is approval of the minutes. The minutes were approved were sent out with your packet. There's two sets, a February 19th corner court meeting and a February 12th special meeting. Uh, any corrections? If not, motion to accept. Motion to accept. Motion to accept by Justice Dean, second by Justice Rio Stafford. All those in favor?

Those opposed? Deal. Um, very short. U county judges report this evening. There's a little bit of a disposal in your packet. The snacks tonight were uh provided by the Brush Creek 4H. What an a tremendous group of young people here this evening to uh to visit with us about their upcoming annual banquet and all their projects. It's just such a great thing to see. Um I'll mention a couple things. The application list for Patriot Park uh is now open. For those of you unfamiliar, Patriot Park is our housing uh veterans housing project up just a few blocks north here on the corner of uh College and North. Um we've opened up that application process. And so if you know of veterans uh looking for an affordable place to live, please welcome them home and let them know. You can visit patriotparkfatville.com uh to sign up and have your uh your uh your interests be looked at there. I will say that last week we were honored enough to host a week-long training at our emergency operations center that was put on by the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management. Um they were very complimental of all of our teams here. It was a great time to bring a bunch of collaboration together in that building. So, we had people from multiple agencies around the northwest Arkansas area and even around the state. Um, we look forward to having a lot more of those trainings like that. Every time we train with our first responders, this area become safer. Uh, and so I think that was a great moment for us to rock walk through a tabletop exercise of training, but also do kind of a shakedown cruise for that facility. We treated it like it was a actual emergency. So, um, still doing some punch list things there to make sure that building will serve in its highest form anytime we encounter an emergency here in Washington County. And with that, I'd like to say that um, paving season starts very soon in April 15th. Uh, and so be thinking about our road crews uh, who are putting together their lists and who will be working very work very hard daily, but we'll be putting a lot of effort back into our

paving uh, over the summer. Uh, but with that, I'm ready to move forward with our agenda. Councelor, first item on new business is item number eight. We read that ordinance by title only. Item eight is an ordinance ratifying a conditional use permit recommended for approval by the planning board for the Jean George communication tower project. Dr. Atta, you want to give us a short summary real quick? Good evening everyone. Um so this project was like approved by the planning board uh the five members attending on uh February 12th. Uh the property as a whole is like 132 acres. Um the applicant is requesting to use only like 70 uh 75 by 75 like area lease. The actual compound is going to be 60x 60 fence. It's going to be a tower that's um about like 104 ft. And so far we have not received uh any complaints from any neighbors. All the approvals from the federal government has been presented and we have no issues with that. Thank you.

Motions or discussion by the board? Justice Limming. I make a motion that we suspend the rules and put it on the second reading. Second. I have a motion to suspend the rules and move item number eight to a second reading by Justice Limming. I think I heard second by Justice Ricker. Is that good? All those in favor? Those opposed? Counselor, will you read that for a second time? An ordinance ratifying a conditional use permit recommended for approval by the planning board for the Gene George communication tower project. Justice Limming.

I have a motion to suspend the rules and move this to a third and final reading by Justice Limming. Second by Justice Ricker. All those in favor, do we discuss that? Yeah. Okay. Justice Dennis, I'm sorry about that. I I uncued your mic. Will you cue it for me again? I'm sorry about that, sir. Justice Dennis. Thank you, Judge. U It seems like we're delay and everything tonight, but at the same time, don't we normally bring this to committee before it comes here?

No. No. CUPs were explicitly taken out of the requirement due to the time constraints on when they have meetings and so CUPs by your own ordinance do not go to committees. Okay. All right. Thank you. Just didn't know very much about it. So, it's being rushed and I I haven't heard very much about it. So, any other uh discussion? Any other discussion? Questions? This is on a motion to suspend the rules and move to a third and final reading by Justice Lming, a second by Justice Ricker. All those in favor? Those opposed? Councelor, will you read this for a third and final time?

An ordinance ratifying a conditional use permit recommended for approval by the planning board for the Gene George communication tower project. Justice Lim, let's move it to the full corn court for pass approval. I have a motion to pass item number eight by Justice Lim. Sorry. Yeah, let's just pass it tonight. Thank you. You still want to stand beside this man? Second by Justice Ricker. Uh, any further discussion on item number eight? Any public comments on item number eight? Seeing none, we're going to take up the question. And I have a motion to pass item number eight by Justice Limming, a second by Justice Ricker. Mr. Allen, will you please call the role? Justice Eki, yes. Yes. Justice Dean, yes, sir. Yes. Justice Washington,

yes. Yes. Justice Koger, yes. Yes. Justice Dennis, no. No. Justice Rio Stafford? Yes. Justice Lemming? Yes. Justice Ricker? Yes. Justice Pond? Yes. Justice Bruns? Yes. Justice Wilson? Yes. Yes. Justice Massenill. Yes. Yes. Justice Rivera Lopez. Yes. Yes.

Item number item number eight passes. Item number nine. Councelor, will you read that by title only? Item nine is an ordinance to authorize retroactive step plan compensation for certain county employees in the amount of 19,4344 and appropriating $4,19967 of that total to the budget of the prosecuting attorney to cover the compensation tax and employer retirement contributions. Justice Koger.

Thank you, Judge. Yes. Um I'm not going to go into a lot of detail. Again, we've already covered everything, but for people who are in the audience and might may not know or listening online, when we created the step plan for TR beginning in 2025, for some reason, a few of the public defenders and someone in the prosecutor's office did not receive their step raises. So, this ordinance simply, it's not a new raise. It's what they would have received in 2025, and it's retroactive to them. And the uh I would say that the public defender already has that money in their budget, but the prosecuting attorney needs 4,19967 in order to do that. And that's my motion that we pass this.

I have a motion to pass by Justice Koger. I believe I heard second by Justice Rivera Lopez. Is that correct? Any further discussion by the body? Justice.

Thank you, Judge. I'm in support of this. I've always been in support of our county employees who do a fantastic job. They are our most valued asset. Uh but I would like to encourage this body to remember to pass the budget before December so that way our HR department has an opportunity to properly code everything the way it needs to be coded. and maybe perhaps situations like this won't occur. So that's my two cents. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Josephi. Any further discussion? Justice Rio Stafford.

Thank you, Judge. Uh I agree with everything that both of my colleagues just said. Um you know, I fully support this. I still don't understand how our prosecutors and public defenders got left out in the first place when we voted in 2024. That was my intention of what I thought we were voting on is to include all county employees. And in 2025, we added language to make sure that that was really spelled out and that was the case. Um, I think our prosecutors and public defenders have earned it. Uh, they did a tremendous job last year clearing the backlog of cases that were left over from the pandemic. The prosecutor's office says that 2025 was the first year that more than 5,000 cases were closed in a single calendar year, which I think is tremendous. Um, that gets our justice system moving faster. People spend less time in jail. It helps reduce the jail overcrowding. And I think our prosecutors and public defenders should be rewarded for doing this work. uh and that we should be doing everything we can to keep them in these jobs and show we value them and their experience and their service to the county. Thank you.

Further discussion on item number nine. Any public comments on item number nine? Seeing none, we're going to take up the question. I have a motion to pass by Justice Koger and I had second by Justice Rivera Lopez. Mr. Allen, will you please call the role on item number nine to pass item number nine? Justice Heck. Yes. Yes. Justice Dean. Yes, sir. Yes. Justice Washington. Yes. Yes. Justice Koger. Yes. Justice Dennis. Yes. Yes. Justice Rio Stafford. Yes. Justice Lemming. Yes. Justice Ricker. Yes. Yes. Justice Pond. Yes. Justice Bruns. Yes. Justice Wilson. Yes. Yes. Justice Mingill. Yes. Yes. Justice Rivera Lopez.

Yes, sir. Yes. Item number nine passes. Item number 10 was removed from the agenda and referred to the next county services committee. Item number 11, councelor, will you read that by title only? Item 11 is a resolution emphasizing good citizenship among the youth of Washington County schools. Justice Wilson.

Thank you, Judge. Um, I wanted to provide a little bit of background as to how this resolution materialized. As we are aware, early in February, a number of students walked out of Washington County high schools. It was in the news. A lot of people saw it personally. I think it was about February 3rd. Um, almost immediately some people started contacting me. Some were friends, some were constituents uh of that I have represent on this court. Uh some were both and we had discussions about it and and in the process of that some were saying why why didn't they keep the students in the school where they were safe? I mean I was asked some questions about that. Of course, me um being a former high school administrator, um I was very interested in the answers to some of those questions. And incidentally, I mean, a lot of people uh let their background, resume, expertise, whatever, be known before they speak, which is appropriate. And I'll say I spent 27 years in public education, 12 as a teacher, 15 as a high school principal, like I said. Um, so I was interested in this as a taxpayer, as a parent, now as a grandparent, and as a former school administrator. Um, now in all of those roles I just mentioned, one thing that they have in common, dad, grandparent, administrator, there's a common denominator there, and that's concern for students. And I had a deep concern for the students and their care and their safety when I was on the job and I still do. But anyway, like I said, a lot of people contacted me and u some even asked, "Can you do something?" I and I said immediately right away. And some people

in the room would be glad to hear this before one word of this resolution was written. I said, "The quorum court is not the boss of public schools." And I think everybody here understands that. Um, and I told people if you're real concerned about this, I would suggest that you go talk to school administration because they will hear you. If you set up an appointment, you need to speak. Uh, I suggest also that if you really feel strongly about it, go to one of the schoolboard meetings. They allow people to speak there just the same way that we allow people to speak here in the quorum court. And uh I even went to um the Springdale schoolboard meeting because I live in Springdale and one happened almost immediately after this. It was February 9th and I didn't go there to speak. Didn't intend to speak and I didn't speak but I went because I wanted to hear if other people spoke because not only they were they constituents of the Springdale School District, they were constituents in my district. So I wanted to hear what they said and some came to that meeting and spoke against what had happened at that time. I think one person that night spoke in favor of the students leaving uh the school. So they had a few that spoke about that and at that point I had already started writing this resolution because I felt strongly about keeping students safe and I also feel strongly about their education. Uh on February 10th, I had hard copies of this resolution. And just I'm telling you this because I didn't I want everybody to know that I wasn't trying to sneak up on anybody with this. I took a hard copy to the superintendent's office in Fagatville. I took a hard copy to the superintendent's office in Springdale and attached to that was a note with my contact information and said, "You can contact

me. You can ask any questions you want, just you and me, uh you and your entire administrative team, whatever. And I made that known. I also took a copy to Harbor High School. The reason being is that's the high school, one of the high schools where this happened and it's closest to where I lived. I thought it fair that I was basically a neighbor to Harbor High School. So, I took one directly to them. Um, nobody got back with me on that, which is fine. Maybe they didn't want to talk about it. Uh but it's fine either way. Um as you read through this resolution, anybody can read through it and you will see that it does not criticize anybody. Not the schools, not school administration, not faculty members, not the students themselves, not parents. It does not say that this was a horrible thing. It does not say that anybody acted inappropriately. It does not accuse somebody of wrongdoing. It's not You won't find that anywhere in here. My intention was to support schools and work together as a community to make sure all of our children in schools are taken care of. Um, also I want to make it clear that this resolution does not prevent anyone from doing anything differently than they've done in the past. If you think it's in there somewhere, you can show me, but I I don't think it is. We could pass this resolution tonight, and I hope we will. And students could walk out of a school tomorrow. We all understand that. So, you know, I I don't want to belittle anyone's concerns, but when I think of it in that those terms, I have to say, what's all the fuss about here? you got a person who's a a former administrator who cares about the students in school still even

though he no longer works in one of the schools. Uh this um calls for school safety and it calls for civic responsibility. Okay. And and I'll just refer to one part towards the end of u this resolution the articles I won't belabor the point by by reading this line for line, but article one says that it encourages each school district to review its policy to keep students safe. Now, folks, I've been in high schools before. I was a principal in three different high schools, one of them about the size of Harbor High School. I guarantee you they've already done this. If something big like this happens, there's a meeting that takes place, maybe a private meeting behind closed doors, but administrators say, "Hey, should we have handled this differently? Is there something that we need to change?" I'll guarantee you they've already had this. So, we're not telling them to do anything that they they either haven't already done or that they do regularly. The same on article two. It says, "Renewed efforts be made by each school uh to teach responsible citizenship to students." They review curriculum every year, sometimes more often than that. This just says that we think in their curriculum we ought to teach responsible citizenship. You know, some people are against this and that's fine, but um you know, there's a part of me that doesn't really understand why you would be against it based upon what I've just said. Um and I want to add this too. You will notice that in this resolution, it never mentions the issue that generated the student walk out. You know why? Doesn't matter. They could walk out because they say, "We don't want school anymore on Mondays. That could be their cause." This resolution would still apply. If

they walked out and said, "We're against abortion. We want to take a stand on that." This resolution still applies. If they walked out and said, "We think federal income taxes are too high. Our parents can't even make it. They're paying too much in taxes." This resolution would still apply. If they walked out and said, "We need more state tax dollars to support our school." This resolution would still apply. Doesn't matter what the issue is. The issue is that when they walked out, the personnel at the school could no longer guarantee their safety. And I think that's very important. And I take it import very important as a dad, as a grandfather, and as a former school administrator. Now, I'll wrap this up real quick. I know I've talked long enough, but I read a book by somebody I've never met. His name is Wayne Lee. He uh is from Little Rock. And I read all the way through the book. It's not very long, but he talked about what we need to do in America today and a lot of the things that we struggle with socially and otherwise. And I couldn't tell if he was a Democrat or Republican. Sometimes he sounded like he was saying something that a Democrat would say or advocate for. Sometimes he sounded more conservative. I couldn't tell. He never let it be known what his political affiliation might be. But at one point he talked about the founding fathers. And I say this because a lot has been said already tonight about the First Amendment and I think we're all in agreement that everybody has protection of constitutional rights. That's not what's at issue with this resolution. The founding fathers understood this and they understood how we need to implement and practice our rights. And this author wrote about the foundings founders of the country. He

wrote it this way. They saw that passion left untethered could overwhelm reason. They recognized that freedom without boundaries could not endure. So they built a balanced design, a republic that honored conscience and upheld the law, yet remain grounded in the belief that every person has dignity that must be respected. Now I had already written the resolution before I found that quotation and I thought I think that applies here. Um I also taught social studies, government, civics for about 12 years. I had a lot of discussions with students about the first amendment, the second amendment and so on. And uh I taught some junior high classes and then there was a time when I taught high school classes. The conversations were the same. The maturity level might have been a little bit different. But when we had those discussions, I had to say, "Now wait a minute. You have freedom of speech." Yes. I would tell the class this. I would say, "Freedom of speech doesn't mean you say anything you want to anyone you want, anytime you want, in any form you want, in spite of what others might say or do or feel or think. At some point as a society, we have to have some guard rails and we have to have individual responsibility. And that's why one of these um final paragraphs states that we would urge responsible citizenship. Of course, those students who walked out that day felt passionately about something and we respect that. But at some point, everybody has to understand that you just can't demonstrate your

feelings, your preferences, or your views, in spite of whatever the consequences may be, good or bad. So having said all this, I just want to finally say I believe strongly when I taught in the 90s about constitutional rights. What I told the students then still applies now because the constitution hasn't changed. I believe in schools everywhere we should teach rights and teach responsibility. I believe strongly that if you do not teach responsibility and only teach rights, then you're going to develop anarchy, insurrection, rebellion, revolution because at some point everybody has to show personal restraint. I believe it's important that our students know that. Now, I've said a lot more than what's in this resolution, but I hope everybody sees clearly that This is just common sense. This is what we want our young people to understand. Yes, you need to know your constitutional rights. Yes, you also need to know how to get along with your fellow citizens as best you can. So, with that, I move that we pass this tonight. Thank you.

I have a motion to pass item number 11 by Justice Wilson and a second by Justice Eky. Justice Rivera Lopez. Thank you, judge. Um I uh I I do not support this resolution. Um and it's not because I do not support the safety of children. Um it is on its face that there is something the wording here to be a good responsible citizen. I don't think there's anything more good or responsible than holding our administrations to account. That's that's what it means. And our schools are there, yes, to teach us uh some of the basics, but they are also there to teach us how to be citizens. And part of that is that we voice our displeasure in in in a manner that we see is conductive to the things that we believe in. And if that were not true, I think the impetus of this of this nation as uh as a nation, the Boston Tea Party, that is not an act of following the rules or restraint or responsibility. It is showing that if you believe in something you should express yourself. I I say this as a student who I protested while I was a student. That does not mean that I was not a good citizen. I am here I think because I was acknowledged of being a good citizen. I think that if we are uh we should not limit our young people into believing that they are at a point in their life that their voice not only does not matter but that we should have some sort of uh we should be guiding them uh as how they feel about things that I think that is misguided. I think that is at the heart of Tinker v. De Moine that is a Supreme Court and they the Supreme Court said that they couldn't wear black armbands to protest the Vietnam War at that time. that no that was not what the Supreme Court said. The Supreme Court said that that action was protected. That was a protected expression of how they felt and that no matter how we feel about what they are doing, the school administration does not have the right to tell them that they cannot do those

things. Um I I don't and I think it is tonedeaf to express that uh the impetus behind why they protested is not a factor in whether or not it is reasonable to take that action. I think that is that is missing the point entirely. Absolutely. If you see something that you deem to be an atrocity, you I think you have a moral obligation to say something and that should be taken into account when we consider the actions that they took. It is not to say, oh, every every protest is the same. That's not true. There are meaningful things that we should protest and in showing that solidarity, I think that makes you a good citizen as we, you know, fight for the dignity of each and every one of us. um that affirms the dignity onto each and every one of us. Thank you, Judge.

Thank you, Justice Rio Stafford.

Thank you, Judge. My big issue with this resolution is separation of powers. We just heard from the sponsor that we're telling the school board to do things. Um we don't have that power. The school board could just as easily tell us to do things and they don't have power. They're elected officials, too. but they don't have the power to tell us to do things. There's plenty of things that we've voted on over the years that a school board could just as easily pass a resolution to tell us that we need to uh go learn some common sense ourselves. Um and my concern is that the public does not understand a lot of the public does not understand that we are completely separate local governments. We do not have jurisdiction over them. They do not have jurisdiction over us. And I'll give you I'm going to give an example of something a little bit unrelated of why I know that the public does not understand this. In Fagetville, there's been a lot of controversy over where they're going to put the new Remy Junior High School because the school district wants to build it on a forested hillside. But when those big monumental decisions have come in front of the school board, the people who are actually in charge, hardly anybody has shown up to those meetings. Instead, for whatever reason, people have bombarded the Favville City Council. I know that because my husband serves on the city council and they have like a really small role in the whole thing. And during the whole time that the Fateville school district has been planning this whole thing and all the controversy has been going on, five of the seven school board members were reelected unopposed. Unopposed. No one stepped up to run against them. So there is already a real clear lack of understanding. People don't realize the school boards exist.

They don't realize that they are elected by the public. They don't realize that they are the only ones with the authority to make decisions about what happens with schools inside schools with the students alongside the state legislature, not the city councils, not the quorum court. And I do not think that we should be adding to that confusion and muddying the waters. I do not want to create the impression that we have some power or jurisdiction over schools because we do not. I don't believe we have any business telling school staff and administrators what they should do or what they should not do. That is the job of the elected school board and that is why I believe this resolution is an overreach and I will be voting no. Thank you. Oh, and uh if I get a second turn, we have an open letter from my colleague Suki Hires who cannot be here tonight um and is because she's traveling. Uh, she wrote a letter. If no one else will is going to read it out loud, I will. Thanks,

Justice Burns.

Thank you, sir. Um, for the last year I have not been in favor of voting for um, uh, these type of things wherein we have no jurisdiction. Uh, I don't even think she they should come to this horseshoe. Um, however, I have a lot of respect for uh JP Wilson. And when he sent this to me, I thought, you know, I don't really want I threw it down twice. I said, I ain't going to look at it. I finally looked at it and you know he's got a lot of insight on this and one being that um you know that I didn't hear him say this. He almost alluded to it but um there is a constitution written for all the people. It doesn't say if you're 18 years of age or older. It says for everybody. Okay. So, these kids should have the right to do something. Now, does this board have the right to tell them that? I don't think so. Okay. I'm with Real Stafford on that. It's I don't think, you know, that we should have that kind of influence. Um but there is this thing where you know they have um

the right to um lawful assembly just like we do. And you know, you have to put it in the administrator at the school's hands to understand, which would come from the school board, that they got to be safe. And I normally say I don't vote um for these type things, but uh but I I firmly believe that they ought to have the right for lawful assembly. So I will be voting for it.

Justice Spawn.

Uh yes. So I'm I'm kind of in a way I'm struggling to to grasp you know what you know what the issue is here when we don't we don't have the authority to tell a school system what to do or the school boards do that. Uh we do we do have a responsibility to express our or some kind of communication as to what we feel would would be responsible. What would we what what do we say to our children, our grandchildren, great grandchildren? Should you be doing this or or not? And I and I and I listed or I listened to a long list of things. Okay. Say maybe tomorrow we have uh children under the a under the age of 18 decide to walk off the school grounds. They're not 18 yet, but they decide to walk off of the school grounds in protest of well, let's say try rules, laws, regulations. They decide they don't like truency laws. So, they walk off the grounds during a time they're scheduled for class to demonstrate that. I mean I mean I I just I don't think it's a good idea. But uh under these the pretenses of protesting this resolution which does absolutely nothing but express our

our belief that in some kind of action that would be of a responsible citizen or individual. But heck, I'll just go with that. If it's okay to walk off the school grounds and protest all these other things, they could do it in protest in truency rules, laws, regulations, and and uh so I really don't think it's a good idea. So I'll be voting for the resolution and hopefully sometime tomorrow there's not a big walk out kids protesting truency. Thank you, Justice Mesingill.

Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna be voting against this. Um, not because I I don't disagree with with what's said here. It's just that this is outside what I feel like is the the role of this court. And if we open this can of worms and start bringing things in here that that we're don't have authority over, we could we could spend the rest of our life debating every issue under the sun. So I want to encourage my colleagues to to vote against this whether you support it or not. Justice Koger.

Yes. Thank you, Judge. Um first of all, I disagree with my colleague JP Wilson when he said the subject doesn't matter. It does matter. It was about uh ICE, Immigration Enforcement Cadro, abducting people off the streets in our county. That's what the protest was about. But I want to I have some questions for the sponsored judge if I may ask him. Just a couple of questions. Justice Wilson, that's open. That's up to you whether you're open to questions or not. Yes, sir. I was going to make another comment later anyway, so I'd be glad to consider any questions as I make my remarks later if that's okay.

If you want to address them. Yes, sir. Okay. You said you contacted the school districts and they never got back to you. So, I take that to mean they didn't contact you to to bring this resolution, but did you talk to any students uh who might have participated in any of the protests before you brought this resolution? I think he's going to note them down and answer them in his comments later. So Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't Okay, that was your intent, Justice Wilson. Is that correct? I'm not going to overstep here. Okay.

Okay. I I didn't understand that. Okay. So, my next question is uh you cite safety, but could you give me any specific examples of safety? anything that happened at any of the protests that caused anybody to be concerned about student safety, like any injuries, arrest, or documented threats? Uh, did any law enforcement agency issue a report identifying these walkouts as a safety risk? Um, and also I'd like to say that uh um something personal here. Uh my father, Arley Richardson Tucker, was a young man when World War II started. He fought in World War II uh in a Pacific Pacific theater. He was on in the battle of Iraimma. Uh and he fought so that we could have the rights that these students have today. He and millions millions of other people have died for those rights. So, um, I just want to say I it's if we're really concerned about school safety, we here on this court tonight would be passing a resolution to ask our legislators to pass common sense gun laws and not trying to limit our students constitutional rights.

Justice Ricker, I'll be quick on this. I agree with a large portion of the resolution. However, I don't think the quorum court has a dog in this fight, so I'll vote against it. Justice Washington.

Thank you, Judge Deans. So, I um have read over this a number of times um because I always try to see the other side and I'm just unable to see the other side in this. First of all, um there is a lot of language in this resolution in my opinion that is vague and subjective. So you're saying things like a number of citizens. Well, what is a number of citizens? Was it 10? Was it a thousand? You know, if it was four, five, 10 people, are we creating an issue where none really exists? That wasn't listed here. Um also, there's language like that in line 42 that uh Students need to be taught to exercise their legal rights in a respectful manner. Well, what does respectful mean? Because respectful is subjective. To one person, respectful may mean not hitting someone. To another person, respectful may mean not using profanity. Like what who gets to determine what respectful is? Uh this also cites the safety of the school during the walk out, the safety of the students. Well, what are the actual safety issues? And I think JP Koker um alluded to that. So were there issues? Were there things that happened during the walkouts or the protests? Um I I just feel like this is really vague and subjective on that particular issue. Um because no issues are cited in the resolution. So if there were the safety issues, um why not site those issues in the resolution along with all of the other whereazes that we have in here. Um another thing, um there was a line and I I didn't write down the line that these protests can be conducted outside of school hours. So is the real issue here safety? Because if

it's unsafe during a walk out during school hours, is that same protest not unsafe? After 3:30, does something magically happen and now it becomes safe? So that just leads me to believe that once again, a lot of this here is vague. A lot of here is really non-specific. A lot of this is subjective and a lot of this, in my opinion, is out of the purview of what the quorum court does. Now, at face value, I'm a mom. I support students being safe. I'm also a mother who has had a student who has participated in a walk out. So, I I support the safety and all of that as well. But is that really what we're supposed to be doing here? And are we do we really want to teach our students that okay, you can express yourselves? Just really don't express yourselves about things that we don't really want you to express them about because those are the undertones. Those are the dog whistles that are in this ordinance that nobody is really addressing. So yeah, could someone protest truency? Yes. But would we be up in arms if students walked out of a school about truency? I bet we wouldn't. But would we be up in arms if students walked out of a school to protest ICE? We absolutely would. So I'm just asking everyone that at its face value, yeah, I get it. But let's think about what the undertones of this are saying. Let's think about what it's saying that it's not really saying. And I just think that this is a it's a bad look for us as a county because what it seems is that we are trying to pass a resolution saying that we're in agreement in telling people that they really can't exercise their first amendment right. Um the whole thing about defying authority. Well, what does defying authority mean? um you know uh teaching students they can't express their rights in spite of consequences. Like it's just a lot of

language in here that is problematic for me. And I would urge us to consider the optics of this resolution. Consider what we're saying to all of the people and all of the students who live in Washington County. And I just can't find anything redeemable in this resolution to support it. and I urge my colleagues not to either. Justice Rio Stafford.

Thank you, Judge. Uh, our colleague, as I mentioned earlier, uh, JP Suki Hires, uh, sent all of us an open letter, uh, and asked for one of us to read it out loud at the meeting. So, I'm going to do so. So, again, these are not my words. These are the words of our my colleague JP Hires, who couldn't be here tonight. Good evening. I am not there tonight because I am chaperoning 36 teenagers to Paris for spring break. Lucky. Uh but I feel strongly about JP Wilson's resolution. So I wanted to share my words. In addition to my service on quorum court, I also teach advanced placement government and politics at Favville High School. I am the only teacher serving this body. So my perspective on this is unique. First, the quorum court has no jurisdiction over the locally elected school board. So, this resolution has absolutely no bearing on public schools. It has absolutely no enforcement. It is inappropriate. Second, one of the landmark Supreme Court cases I teach my students is from 1969, Tinker versus De Moines. Students were punished after a protest against the Vietnam War. And the court found that students do not shed their First Amendment rights when they go to school unless their actions become disruptive to the learning environment. These walkouts that occurred in February were less disruptive than chicken finger Fridays at the local sorority house. They were less disruptive than standardized testing, than senior skip day or the day before prom. Students have a right to protest and they are already marked with an unexcused absence for the periods of the walk out which is a part of the state law act 341, the access act.

Protests are a useful way for students to use their voices because they cannot vote yet, but they want to be heard. This is true no matter their message. If they had walked out to voice conservative views, I do not believe this resolution would be in front of us. Third, and I think one of the most important points, we as a quorum court have done a fantastic job of working around political ideology. The fact is that our business here transcends partisan ideology. We have been very successful lately working beyond party membership and it has been one of my favorite aspects of this term in quorum court. This resolution is a step backwards, redrawing invisible lines that do nothing for our constituents. On behalf of the students of Washington County, I ask that you vote no on this resolution. Keep our business relevant to the work that we do. Sincerely, Suki Linhire's Justice of the Peace District 11.

Justice. Thank you, judge. I will say right off I am in support of this resolution. I don't see how it has anything to do with political ideology as Justice Hires wrote in her letter and I don't see how it's drawing invisible lines. It's a matter of opinion and we're here to have a discussion. Nobody is waging war on anybody's party. That's a sidebar. I come from I come to this resolution from the perspective of a parent. I know that I take my children to school and I drop them off. And yes, the school, the authority, the administrators are charged with protecting my children when they're at school. That's the authority that the school has. If that one of my sons would have walked out of school in a protest without me giving a parental consent to them leaving, that action would immediately been you're suspended in school suspension for leaving school. You don't do that. I understand and I value JP hires profession as an in-class educator. I think I've praised her on several occasions and I'm so glad we do have an educator on the on the court, but also Justice Wilson has a broader perspective on what happens in a school

serving as a principal. His lens is broader and he sees things differently. I see them like Justice Wilson sees them. My mother was a principal. Hands, feet, objects to yourselves. Get in line. Don't talk. But the cit I'm supporting this on the fourth. Whereas citizens voiced their concern for safety. Yes, they did. Somebody brought up at the school board meeting, you know, somebody could have just driven by and just mowed down those children and they would been sitting ducks. Somebody could have gone into the school because there was that confusion that the students caused that nobody would have seen them and there could have been a mass shooting and I think our discussion would be completely different if that would have happened. The thing is there was no protections. The authority that the school had was violated by the students. We're not saying that they can't protest. We're not saying that they can't voice their opinion. When you're at school, you're there to learn. Secondly, in article two, civic responsibility. Yeah. I hope the school teaches them civic responsibility. And if they don't know what the word respect means, go to the dictionary and look it up. It's there. That is what respect means. And therefore, your actions and your conduct should follow it. I was just talking to a parent about this, trying to get their perspective on it, and he said, "I I was I was driving

down 412 and I saw it. I saw those kids driving around and they were a bit reckless while they were driving, hanging outside the windows. Some of them sitting outside the windows waving these big old brandy flags. He goes, "That was dangerous." And I'm watching these kids wave those banners and I thought, "Oh my goodness, somebody could get in a wreck so easily. What's going on here?" My whole perspective is safety. Now it is our our authority. Public safety is our authority. We are charged as JPS with public safety. That's why we have law enforcement and public safety committee meetings once a month. This was not safe. I'm so thankful that nothing happened. But I am coming from the perspective of a parent. They did not have parental consent to leave school and go out and demonstrate. I would have had a commition and I would have been after the superintendent for allowing this because he is ultimately responsible. But I would first gone to the principal of the school saying, "How did you allow this to happen?" They didn't have permission. You need parental consent just to give them an aspirin. You can't touch a child without parental consent, but you can allow them to leave school. Maybe they should stay in school and learn what it is to be respectful and protest correctly and voice their opinion. No one's taking away their freedoms. No one's trying to tell the

school board what to do. I think y'all are reading way too much into this is all we're saying is we're concerned for their students safety and and the school has the authority and they are ultimately responsible for the student safety. have a lot of other things. But yes, public safety is our authority and that is our responsibility for the county and these parents and these students. Guess what? We represent them. Do we not? I represent those in Springdale. So, every one of those protesters, yeah, I'm their JP in district six that went out and did whatever they did. I represent them. as do you. I'm in support of this and I don't see how we're violating anybody's rights or telling anybody what to do is all we're saying is we want our our children to be safe at school and if I drop you off at school, you better stay at school and not just leave because you want to. That's all I have to say about that, Judge. I'm sorry. Thank you,

Justice Wilson. Thank you, judge. I know a lot of people um here on the quorum court may be ready to wrap this up and I understand, but there were some questions asked of me and there was some other things said uh in our discussion tonight that misrepresented what I said even though I spoke clearly I thought from the very beginning. You might remember one of the first things I said is that I told constituents that the quorum court is not the boss of our schools. And then I bet you 10 people have said something about we don't have any authority over the schools. Well, I I already know that. Um, and also I want to point out that um, you know, I did hear from a lot of people and I I'll speak to that later, but um, uh, I some people I heard from were parents uh, and and uh, while we all acknowledge students rights as uh, spelled out in the first amendment, we also I think we all understand the golden rule which uh, he who has the gold makes the rules. Have you ever heard that parents pay the bills and they expect their students to be in school and they're old enough to vote, but the students aren't quite old enough to vote yet? They do have first amendment rights, but if the parents want them in school, the administrators want them in school, and all the adults in the community want them in school, I don't know why that should be a big debate. But um I wanted to mention that at the outset and a couple of other things that I was supposed to uh speak to. I guess um uh we've heard people say tonight this resolution here has no legal enforcement. Every time we have a resolution, someone says it's not legally binding. And that's whether they're for it or against it. They say it's not legally binding. And that's been stated to tonight, too. Uh so we might as well not pass it is kind of the rationale. But I mean, if that's true,

then we shouldn't ever have a resolution. Uh cuz we could say it we could say it every time. Uh so that that doesn't hold any water tonight to say, "Well, it's not legally binding." We know that. Everybody here knows that. Um a couple of my colleagues have mentioned the Tink Tinker case ruled by the courts. I respect that. The black armbands. I used to teach my students that too. Uh and they say that the students had a right to wear a black armband at school. And what not everybody is saying except uh JP Hires in what she wrote, she even mentioned it. The Tinker case, the students were given the right to do that because the court said it that did not, as far as they could see, interrupt the educational environment of the school and those were written in her her letter as well. So the the the issue is not can students protest from the school as a base of operations. It's are they doing it in a way that doesn't disrupt the educational environment of the school. I'm quoting from the highest court, folks. Uh and I'll guarantee you when students walked out of Washington County schools, the educational environment was disrupted the rest of the day. There wasn't much learning left in that day. So, you know, this is not me saying this. This is the court that's saying that. Um, so there's this question, can students protest? Yeah, they can protest within certain parameters. You and I can protest within certain parameters, too. But there's sometimes a police officer may stop us, and we all understand that. Let me ask you this. Everybody said that the students had every right to walk out of the school that day. Well, would they have a right to walk in here tonight and disrupt this entire meeting? It wouldn't go on very long. I don't

think so. That's what I said earlier. Nobody, adult, student or anybody has the right to do anything they want in the name of a protest or in the name of free speech. We all have free speech. Yes. But as an adult in a free republic, everybody should understand I'm going to treat my fellow citizens with respect as I voice my concerns. That's all this is saying. Um, we also u you know I I was asked if I contacted students. No, I did not. I I didn't contact any adults either. People came to me. If any student had come to me, I would have talked to them. But I got 27 years of experience talking to students. I already know what they'd say. Students were, you know, young people in the 90s, uh, young people now, they have some of the same concerns. Our society's changed some, but I know how to talk to students and I know how to hear their concerns and I know how to coach them to to uh walk in a way so that their life is more enjoyable and more productive and and I really believe strongly in that. Um so when we vote on any issues, I I don't go out and try to poll everybody I run into contact with. When people come to me, I know they really feel strongly about it, but I don't go out and try to conjure up support for what I want to do on this court. So, I I just don't operate that way. Um, I was asked about safety. Well, this this is not just safety, it's potential problems. Nobody got hurt that day, thank goodness, but somebody could have. So the concern when you're a school principal, when you're an educator in any capacity, you're trying to make sure the students aren't in a situation where something stupid happens and somebody gets hurt. You're you're all the time you're in

preventive mode. As a parent, you're that way, too. You try to keep your uh son or your daughter from doing something that they're going to regret or that they might get hurt uh as as they do it. So, school officials are the same way. Um, so there's a potential problem. And guess who gets sued if somebody does get hurt? The school does. So, I'm really looking out for the schools here with every word I say tonight. And I'm looking out for the students as well. Um, so the school is liable uh if something goes wrong. And um some someone questioned doing something outside the regular school day. Look, if the if these students were told, "I think you should have a protest. Let's do it right in front of the school. Let's do it Saturday at 11:00 in the morning and the teachers or principles or whoever could have said, "We'll be right here with you." It would not have disrupted the educational school day. Anybody who came could voice their concerns, the media could have been there, whatever you want. I mean, why would that not be effective? I don't know. Why would that be wrong? I don't know. Um, so anyway, at at the end of all of this, we got some people in the room against this, and that's fine. You know, in America, we're not all going to agree on everything anyway. But I refuse to accept this notion that our students in the school have the right to free speech and this legislative body does not. Because a lot of people are saying we shouldn't even speak to this. I got the first amendment right, too. So, I'm speaking to it and we need to speak to it clearly when we vote on this. That's just um you know and and and and those of us on this quorum court, we know that we're not better than anybody else. But why would anybody say that teenagers

have first amendment rights but elected adults do not? Because that's what I'm hearing some tonight. So, I think we should all vote for it. And that's that's the conclusion of my remarks. Thank you so much, Justice. Ver Lopez, the floor question.

I just wanted to uh just a couple things here. I I don't think any justice here has made any endorsement of truency uh by saying that uh the children should be allowed uh to protest in a manner that they see fit. Um I I think that that is awfully reductive of of the nuance of the conversation that we're having. I mean furthermore to say that uh in so far as this does not disrupt an everyday learning experience, there are so many disruptions that disruptions that happened over the course of the year. Uh homecoming, prom, colors day, um a home football game. And I I I don't think I'm being I think everyone knows that yes, kids will leave school, come back to school. Um that's not entirely sanctioned, but it is an event that's going on at the school. Uh are we going to ban those kids from walking to a restaurant between a football game and the end of school? Does that make sense? I don't think so. I don't think any of these things make sense. What we cannot eliminate risks because risks are inherent to being alive. Whenever your child goes to school, you have a there is a risk in that. Whenever a child walks to school, u many children walk to schools. Are we going to ban walking to school because somebody could mow them down, so to speak? No. No. Because we don't operate off that. I feel that there's such a low opinion of young people. Do you think that young people are going to throw away their day because they are going to go out and fight for something that doesn't matter? Does that make sense to anyone here? Because it doesn't make sense to me. I apologize. That that might be a little frank, but that doesn't make sense. If if they care enough to lose a day, to fight for something that means something for them, why are we acting as though they are going to express the same amount uh take the same amount of time out of their day just to to play hookie? That doesn't make sense to me. I think

it's an awfully reductive way to look at uh people who felt that they needed their voices to be heard and took an action and and did something to express that. Uh, thank you, Judge. I see. Justice Liming.

Thank you, Judge. I I don't know where to start, but David, I want to say thank you for all the hard work, and there's been a lot said as a as a dad of three kids, as a grandpa of 13 grandkids and four great grandkids. As a parent, what Mr. Wilson's saying is totally different from what you're saying. And I'm not saying it bad because you're a young man and don't have no family. You don't have I'm sorry you got a family but you don't have kids. When we have kids, it's a different animal. And my kids and my grandkids better respect everyone on this horseshoe, everybody in the audience, none of them better not have respect. They better be nice to everybody. And that's all Mr. Wilson's saying. And that's what this world needs to get back to. And I'm going to support his resolution just because of the fact is it's all good common sense. Kids today is nothing like kids 64 models like me and others. It's different world and we live in a different world. This this generation is I'm not talking bad about any generation. We love them all but they're a different they're a different culture. I wasn't going to speak much on all this because it's this goes deeper than just our schools. It goes back to families, your moms and your dads, how you is raised. This this goes deep a lot further than what we're can deal with. And it is not our wheelhouse. But you say that, but when it comes time to pass the millage for the schools, all we can do is say no, and schools ain't going to get it. So, we got a little leverage, but we we don't need to use it that way. This this really ain't our wheelhouse. We all know that. But this resolution,

it's important to us old-timers that's got kids and grandkids because like Lisa said, if our kids would let out of school to go protest on a sidewalk and somebody does shoot them or somebody, where's that go to? Does the school responsible for them? They're going to be responsible. So, your tax dollars is going to be in a big lawsuit over that. And I I send my kids to school at 7:45 and they get out at 3:45 and I expect them to be at school and be safe. I don't expect them to be out on the sidewalk. And if they are, they better call me and they better let me know because we're going to have problems, all of us. So, this is a this is a crazy it's it's complicated deal. And David, I want to say thank you because it's been a lot of hard work and you've not took anybody's rights away to speak and do what they want to do. and and this really has no bearings. It's just it's just us recognizing the fact that safety for our kids is very important and it is very important and I'm going to be supporting it just because of all that. I'm not taking anybody's rights away and I'm not even thinking about taking anybody rights away. You got the right to do whatever you want. Sometimes what you do is not always good. Sometimes it's got some consequences with it. So with all that said, I say thank you and I will be supporting it. Justice Washington.

Thank you. So, I mean, it looks like this is probably going to pass, but I just want to speak to one thing. I think that we are not giving our young people enough credit. We are acting as if they're looking for any excuse to walk out of any school and just go do whatever. Now, I don't know about you guys, but many many years ago, uh, when my kids were at Favville High School on any day of the week, they were running across the the road going down the Sonic and doing all of these other things. They weren't out protesting, but they were doing things that were not safe. And at that point, the campus was open. It wasn't an issue. But I just want to say this, every kid that leaves school to protest is not doing so without their parents' knowledge. There are some parents like me that will talk to their students and say, "Okay, this is what you want to do. What does this mean? Do you have a test that day?" You understand that if you're not in class, you will be marked with an unexcused absence. You do understand you will not be able to make up that work. You do understand that there are there could potentially be consequences. Now, do you still believe strongly in this? Do you still want to do it? My child never did anything like that leaving the school and I didn't know it without us having a conversation about it. And I I I just sit and think and maybe this just means something different to me, but I think about the children who marched in Selma, Alabama. What if there had been policies like this stay in school? I think about those young kids who sat in lunch counters and had coffee poured. They were kids. They were kids and they believed in something that was bigger than themselves. They believed in something that would advance society. And I'm just like, well, so do we think that because it made people uncomfortable or because I mean, it's unsafe to have hot coffee poured on your head. It's unsafe to get burned by

someone smoking a cigarette. It's unsafe for someone to let dogs loose on kids. It's unsafe to turn on water hydrants on children, little girls. All of those things are unsafe. And I I just I think that this is just selective. It it just in my opinion, it just seems very selective to what was being protested. And it seems a little shortsighted. And yeah, I know it's probably going to pass. I don't care about that. But I just felt that I needed to say that that we need to give the younger generation a little more credit than we do. They're not just trying to be out here just kicking it and having fun. Some of them really are socially conscious. Some of them actually do care about what happens to this country. Some of them actually do care about everybody who lives in all citizens who live in Washington County. So, let's not discount uh the impact of what they do. Let's not disc let's just not do that. Even if you support this, let's not discount the contributions of these kids. All right. Any further discussion by the board? Public comments on item number 11.

I have an example of un of Before you begin, please state your name and where you live for the record.

My name is Ellen Ryabo. I live at 989 Fair Bay Fair Lane, Springdale. And I have an example of of a safety is issue. There were six kids in the back of a pickup that were driving down the road and the sidewalk was totally full of children and there was all the traffic along Jones Road. So, it was very unsafe. My husband actually came up on the scene and said and saw all the kids. So, that was an example of safety. If you'll push that button on the bottom right for me. My name is Ron. I live

if you pick that microphone up. Keep it in front of your face, too. The auditory issues back here are bad. Go ahead, sir.

My name is Miller Ron. I live at 2584 North Elizabeth Avenue. I'm a junior at Fyville High School and the co-president of the school's young Democrats chapter. The Fateville protest was organized by a freshman and still produced a safe, effective environment for students to express themselves. Superintendent John Wolfford commented publicly in support of the dignity of the students. Quote, "You don't want kids missing class, but then there's always a part of you that makes you proud when kids do it the right way. And I feel that the kids today, for the most part, given the large number, did it the right way." End quote. The school board itself seems proud of their behavior. Why should the quorum court tell the board how to feel? The state legislation of the Arkansas Access Act prevents schools from issuing excused absences for walkouts. The school already has such little wiggle room. There is no need for another motion to tell the school board what to do. Protesting students are not stupid. Protesting students are not unsafe. They understood the consequences for the resolution. Only one excused absence for one period. Another aspect we easily overlook is that a majority of the Favville High School students don't have driver's license, making schools the best, safest place for kids to express their right to assemble. Students chose quite maturely to express themselves in the most efficient avenue they had available. This walk out was not a knee-jerk reaction, but a wellthoughtout and safe example for students. While I also echo the urge to protect students, this type of response approaches students as a paternalistic and as paternalistic and de diminishes the good grace of the student body that demonstrated. I feel that the comments made about students here tonight have diminished their autonomy and their intelligence. Speaking on behalf of the Young Democrats and the FHS student body as a whole, we feel that it is inadvisable to pass this resolution and that this resolution is incon speech. Uh I yield my time. Thank you.

Thank you. Public comments. No need to push the button after we get it going. Hit the bottom right. There you go. Okay. Thank you.

Hi everyone. My name is Scarlet. I'm from Fagetville. I'm a US citizen and a resident of Washington County. Um, we are witnessing in real time a president and an administration that is using the full taxpayerf funed power of the federal government to quash the rights of American citizens and residents of this country with even fatal results. We are watching the media be silenced. We are watching citizens be silenced. We are watching residents of this country be kidnapped off the streets. to hear a local elected official talk about limiting students rights to free speech under the guise of safety sends a chill down my spine. Regardless on what side of the aisle you fall on, the first amendment is the first amendment in the Bill of Rights. And to tell people how when you can protest is not what the first amendment is. Peaceful assembly is the only requirement to the first amendment. As far as school safety, as many of the justices pointed it out, that falls under the guidelines of the state and the school board. And there is already plenty of policies in place regarding conduct. So to hear my local government, you know, when you make laws, we are borrowing from the future of children.

And respectfully, some of the elected officials won't even be alive long enough to know what the consequences of the decisions that they make are. We are borrowing from the future of children whether it is the environment, the economy or their rights in the future. And as I stand here, I have been to some other uh of these meetings and I just want to say that we are your constituents. We are not your subordinates. And every single person that comes to these meetings that takes time out of their lives to be involved in their uh local governance is also a part of a community and we talked amongst ourselves and some of the decisions that are made are appalling.

Thank you ma'am. That's your time. Public comments. Hello, my name is Eliza Stewart and I'm a student. I live here in Fyville. I'm a stu I'm a sophomore. Um and I organized the ICE walk out at the school that I go to. We felt safe during this walk out. Our admin we had administrative support because our our teachers walked out well not with us but like they were out there with us. our teachers, the faculty, and the administration, as well as legal observers. They kept us safe, and this taught us how to exercise our right as citizens. And I believe if you are truly concerned about our safety, you would propose a resolution um to say Washington County will support common sense gun laws such as universal background checks on sale of every gun and secure storage laws because we know gun violence is the leading cause in death for students, not protesting. Thank you. Thank you. Public comments.

Good evening. My name is Jesse Buchanan. Um I live here in Fateville in District 11. Um Justice Hires is my justice of the peace. Um and I also work with her at Fateville High School where I teach geometry. Um I was not at school the day that this protest happened. I was out sick. Um, but I can confidently tell you that every student that did participate in the walk out at Fateville High School was counted absent and received the exact same punishment as anyone who skips class for any other reason. This protest, however, was about ICE. And let's not pretend that that's not why we're having this meeting right now and talking about it because the students made it about that. and we are specifically citing the day that this exact protest happened in this resolution. Meaning that it is about this specific protest. If we want to keep students safe, we as adults in the community must keep them safe from real threats in our community, not from themselves. These students did not walk out for no reason. They walked out and hosted this protest, putting themselves on the line and in the street to fight for a safer world where they, their friends, and their families do not have to live in fear of being kidnapped or trafficked by federal agents or people posing as federal agents without due process. Anyone who is paying attention knows that ICE is a threat to children. Why are we concerned about the safety of students at a protest, but not the countless human rights violations that are alleged at the Children's Detention Center in Dilly, Texas? Why are we raising concern for the students who protest in Fyville, but not for the students who have come home to one or no parents because their parents were taken from their home or from the court proceedings that they were required to be at as an immigrant in this country while that student was in class at school. If we want to make sure students are

safe during a protest, fine. Let's establish some protocol where staff join them to make sure that they are kept safe during this time. Unfortunately, we cannot because the state of Arkansas has already made it illegal for staff to join in protests in public schools. Um, if I were to have joined the walkout protest at my school, I would have been met with a minimum of one-year suspension from any public institution in the state of Arkansas. I could not participate in this and try to help keep my students safe. I was bound by my duty. And unfortunately on that day, I was bound by a sick day. If this is about attendance, great. I would love to talk to you all about the chronic absenteeism at Fateville High School. We have a 22% chronic absenteeism rate, which is 9% higher than the rest of the state. I would love to talk about the kids who are gone every day, and I don't know when they're coming back. I would love to talk about the fact that I am worried about where my students live and where they get their food and where they sleep at night. I am not worried about where they are when they have told me that they are going to miss class and they want to know if they can make up their work.

Thank you, Mr. Buchanan. And that's your time. Public comments.

Hello. Thank you. My name is Casey Cromer and I am a Fagatville resident. Uh I'm also a mother and I was at two of the protests um that happened that day, one in Rogers and one in Bentonville. Um they were handled completely differently. I think that if we want our children to be safe, then it then we need to allow for our teachers and our administration to show up um and and keep them safe. If there are laws where teachers cannot go out with the students when they know that um they're going to be exercising their first amendment right and their um right to assemble. Um then that needs to change. Um there was plenty of notice about this protest happening. Everybody knew about it and it was not a surprise. I will say that you said that you know this resolution is not going to do anything that it's not going to change anything. Then I ask why was this brought to the quorum court? I can only assume that your purpose was to further propaganda normalizing rhetoric that tells our citizens when they are allowed to exercise their freedom of speech and their freedom to assemble. I would really discourage this quorum court to support that type of rhetoric that harms our citizens. Thank you very much.

Thank you. That is the completion of our hold time. So we would be subject to a justice Dennis suspend the rules and add another hour to this. Thank you. I have a motion to suspend the rules and add an hour of public comment time by Justice Dennis. Second by did I hear Justice Pond? All those in favor? I. Those opposed? I had another hour. I'm William.

I'm a proud East Fateville resident. And to say nothing about these six landmark cases by the United States Supreme Court guaranteeing the rights of students to protest, engage in freedom of speech activities during the day. I would like or in the school day to talk about the responsibility of our young people and the accountability that they show. I along of several of my classmates had the great honor and fortunate privilege at the age of 17 to swear into the United States Coast Guard where I was expected to not only uphold but to enforce the laws and the Constitution and that includes freedom of speech. When I was 17 years old, I got the fortunate honor and extraordinary privilege of rescuing more than 40 souls from a burning boat. I also got the extraordinary honor of enforcing the laws alongside ICE and Border Patrol and other agencies and I exercised that right and I I did a wonderful job of that and the US federal government gave me several awards for that out of the responsibility and accountability that I showed and in that regard I do support the individuals who want to walk out because they're responsible and accountable. And with that, I give back the rest of my time.

Thank you, sir.

Public comments on Okay. Robert Lee. I live in Springdale 33 years now. Uh been in business 47 years. Uh the rhetoric left, right, up, down, don't care about. I'm a taxpayer. I addressed Springdale School Board afterwards and basically what I told them was I'm here as a taxpayer and a community member. This is not a political statement. It's governance, safety, educational stewardship concerns. Students have the First Amendment rights and I applaud that. I grew up in the 60s and 70s. Same stuff. Time and place, proper, reasonable. That's what I'm looking for. Include peaceful assembly. Doesn't say protest. Peaceful assembly. There's a difference. Schools are legally permitted to enforce reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions during instructional hours. Okay? Anything happens to those students without uh without permission slips, my taxes go up. Not for that. I want folks to do what they First amendment rights, but I do not want them to do it improperly. That's what we're here to talk about. Passing the resolution would only help administration that are already hamstrung in how they can enforce rules. As a quorum court, it would be nice if you did allow some support. It has nothing to do with their first amendment rights. It has everything to do with reasonable, responsible taxpayer issues. Um, Springdale Police Department was not notified within proper time frames. They

had no idea what was going on. I drove around during that time frame. Mostly peaceful, but not quite. Students were flipping cars off, shouting obscinities. And yes, how many people? I have no idea. I don't sit and count that. We can't uh collectively quantify, but we can sit and say, "Hey, there's enough of a problem. Let's address it. Let's get to the bottom line and let's be reasonable. Students are in class to learn. Why not go to the assembly hall and do a protest there? You're inside. You're not disrupting class." Simple simple solutions. But too many times we uh we put our personal bias on it. I'm cutting the bias taxpayers. We don't want any extra taxes because somebody gets hurt and it always falls back onto the taxpayer. Thank you.

Thank you. Public comments. Hello, my name is Henry Foster and I've lived in Faithville my whole life and I attended the uh Faithful uh high school protest. Um I was just going to let y'all know, I mean, y'all are talking a lot about respect and like dignity and trying to make this as like, you know, normal and healthy for everybody in the student body. I I never skip class. I never I am as good a student as I can possibly be and I never skip class lightly and sometimes whenever it's like something that you really really believe in you have to take risks in order to make that go through. I talked to a lot of the other students and try to make this as tasteful and healthy of a protest as I could possibly do. I was going to make signs of profanity and we didn't. We were going to try to make this to wherever we could be presented as a side with more dignity and a side wherever everybody can get along and learn from each other and try to see each other's sides. Thank you.

Thank you. Public comments.

Hi, Andela Hines. I live in district 7 in Fagetville um 1391 North Plum Tree. Uh so I've already mentioned this. I'm going to mention it again. Arkansas code 1414805. Each county quorum court in the state of Arkansas exercising local legislative authority is prohibited the to exercise the following any legislative act that applies to or affects the public school system. You guys have been sued a lot lately. So I would recommend that we follow the Arkansas law. I attended I attended a protest as a legal observer. The reason that your legal observers are having to step in is because there is a gap because the Arkansas does not allow our teachers to care for students in a situation like that. So you can lock the door, but what do you think you're going to have in the inside when 200 400 students want out? That's not a safe environment. We can create a safe environment under your authority. Do you want to talk about how we could if we get rumors of a protest or an event, we partner with an organization to make sure we have trained legal observers? I did witness a car break down that the students were driving in the middle of the street and I was the only adult there until somebody else pulled over. And the reason I was the only adult is because we do not allow our teachers in our schools to care for those students. We've talked a lot about Dr. Wilson's qualifications and I think that it's important that we are also aware that um I I purchased his book actually $4 um I'm a little sassy so like I wanted to read back some of the things that he had written to him tonight written in that book I could not find anything worth quoting because it was full of disdain for students it was disrespectful to those who were underneath his command and so I did a little bit of digging and the only reason I'm bringing this up is because I think It's important if we're going to talk about his credentials that

we actually talk about his credentials because there are articles online about his previous work where a school had to settle for a 250 $45,000 because he was accused with his other administrators of bullying teachers and students. They had to pay out a jury jury awarded a public school that money. There are quotes after quotes in here. You are out of order. Public comments, please continue.

Assistant principal David Wilson started asking how students got their questions. He would get angry anytime students had impromptu questions for him. The jury found that the school district was liable for a hostile work environment, awarding her $24,000 on those counts and $225,000 on another account. I'm not going to tell you what to think, but I do think it's incredibly important that we do our due diligence and research. And if we want to trust an administrator, do your research into that administrator and figure out where he's coming from because I'm going to trust the three teachers that came here and spoke tonight. And I'm also going to trust the students that came here to spoke speak tonight. That's your time. Public comments.

Uh, good evening. My name is, excuse me, Bryson Austin. I live at 904 North Garland Avenue. Um, and I could not be more proud of my JP, Justice of the Peace, uh, Washington. Um, I first want to start off with just some, uh, some things that I don't think the general public would be privy to. Um, James Gore died in the Washington County jail about a week and a half ago. Um, he was at a point where hospice centers were asking for him to be transferred into their care. Um, and no one would get him into that. instead of focusing on those things right now and investigating why he died in our jail. Um, again, a man with brain cancer who had just been treated and was being held pre-trial. Um, not sure if he had to sleep on the floor or not. Um, I also would like to say that we were discussing the industrial development authority a few weeks ago um to build drones uh well that be part of it. We're also getting a drone factory, but it would be able to expand more military technology. And I would like to say that the United States has been accused of killing over 150 Iranian school girls, children um in the country of Iran. I would also like to say that I think that people in the Boomer generation have this very um this very interesting take on the on other generations when they were the most coddled um and supported and subsidized generation in American history. You can fact check that. I've been in high school more recently and I must say I have much more pride and trust in the developing brains in our public schools than the rotting brains of those in Washington who have served for decades and have yet to solve exploding prison populations, thousands dying each year as a result of a lack of healthcare, never-ending wars, and extreme wealth inequality. Also, this court said nothing about Turning Point USA, an organization whose founder thought black women were cognitively impaired as a whole, was promoted in all public high schools by our governor. The president also said that he would be getting rid of the worst of the worst in terms of immigration, and that's what these

protests were about. The Constitution is also dead. the the president openly expressed that he killed the first amendment and the Supreme Court is currently putting our founding documents through the shredder term after term. The immense cowardice of legislation like this and the reasoning behind it are part of the the problem with our county and our country right now. I would like to remind you all that the Holocaust began as a mass deportation campaign that became too expensive. Every day we are living with the increased degradation of certain groups of people and I believe like international organizations that we are in the early stages of multiple genocides including against trans people and brown immigrants. 2025 was the deadliest year for those in ICE custody in 20 years. We live in a we lived in a world before ICE and Ronald Reagan granted mass amnesty to millions of immigrants in 1986. We need a more common sense approach to immigration and crime at at every level of government. Lastly, I believe it is it is gross the amount of infantilization of children that happens in this room in this nation. We use it to completely disregard that they are owed the fuel the full human rights and the full citizen rights of all Americans. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Public comments.

Ross Little Jr. I'm from Springdale. I'm here to speak on the question of jurisdiction. Quite a few people have mentioned that you don't have jurisdiction to do this. But what you're doing is not a legislative act. It's not an ordinance. It's a resolution. It's just giving your opinion. You're exercising your first amendment rights by doing this. You have a perfect right to opine on this just like every other speaker has had a perfect right to opine on this. Also, I think it's a great resolution. I uh urge you to vote yes. Thank you. Thank you. And with that, we'll take up the question. I have a motion to pass item number 11 by Justice Wilson and a second by Justice Eki. Mr. Allen, will you please call the role?

Justice Ekki, yes. Yes. Justice Dean, yes. Justice Washington, no. Justice Koger, no. Justice Dennis, abstain. Justice Rio Stafford, no. Justice Lemming, yes. Justice Ricker, no. Justice Pond, yes. Justice Bruns, Justice Wilson, yes. Yes. Justice Masengill, no. Justice Rivera Lopez, no. No.

Item number 11 fails. With that uh we are down to the last remaining things of our agenda.