First it was COVID-19 policies, then it was critical race theory and now it appears to be white supremacist imagery that took center stage at a Durango School District 9-R board meeting.
On Tuesday, the SS Bolts symbol – a white supremacist and neo-Nazi symbol that was adopted from the Schutzstaffel (SS) of Nazi Germany – was displayed digitally by a virtual attendee at the regular 9-R school board meeting held Tuesday. The symbol was accompanied by the word “Tyranny” in bold, black font.
Student representative to the board Hays Stritikus was the first to notice the SS Bolts symbol that appeared briefly on virtual attendee and Durango resident Britny Hanson’s Zoom window just as the public participation segment of the meeting was coming to a close.
“Somebody’s showing Nazi propaganda on the web camera,” Stritikus said.
Hanson spoke earlier during the public participation segment but quickly had her audio cut because Hanson violated the school district’s public participation guidelines, said school board President Kristen Smith.
“Once again we’re having a school board meeting online because you guys continue to make up laws that don’t exist to keep the taxpayers out of the building that (we pay) for,” Hanson said. “Nonetheless, it really doesn’t matter. You won’t be in your seats forever.”
Hanson then said she is excited about a lawsuit that was filed Monday against the school board and district spokeswoman Julie Popp, the designated election official for the school board election. In a previous interview with The Durango Herald, Hanson took credit for contributing to the research that serves as the foundation of the lawsuit’s accusations against school board candidate Andrea Parmenter, although Hanson does not appear as a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
School Board Vice President Erika Brown said Hanson held her phone up to her web camera and her phone displayed an image of the SS Bolts.
Smith said after Stritikus called out the Nazi imagery, Smith directed a person moderating the Zoom meeting to remove Hanson from the meeting.
In an interview with the Herald, Hanson said she displayed the SS Bolts because she wanted to indicate the “tyranny” the school board has assumed.
“As a Native American, I am disgusted that they are playing this race card, safety card,” Hanson said. “They’re trying to take away from their tyrannical and abusive behavior.”
Hanson said she is from the Muscogee Nation.
When asked what she meant by “tyrannical and abusive,” Hanson said, “I just feel like those are the comments that I need to make.”
When asked again about what was tyrannical about the school board’s conduct, she repeated that she’s “disgusted” the school board is “playing the race card.“
“I’m offended by what they’ve called me,” Hanson said. “... They have called me a white supremacist, yes, they have.”
Hanson’s display of the SS Bolts caused a stir this week on social media, with many Facebook users denouncing the use of such imagery. But even after the online firestorm, and claiming to have used the symbol to insinuate the school board was “tyrannical and abusive,” Hanson claimed Friday she wasn’t familiar with the symbol’s use by hate groups and the Nazis.
“I just know that their tyrannical behavior is what is reflecting right now,” Hanson said. “... I’m familiar that there’s tyrants. I’m familiar with that. I know my Native American history. And that’s what I’m familiar with.”
Smith said Hanson has disrupted previous board meetings.
“So there’s kind of like a long pattern or history of this,” Smith said.
School board members said they started holding board meetings virtually in part because of Hanson’s disruptions. When informed of this Friday, Hanson restated she is disgusted the board would pull the race and safety card.
Smith said Hanson has yelled at board members during previous meetings about mask policies. In August, she refused to move from her chair or leave the school building after a meeting was canceled because public attendees refused to wear masks or respect public health attendance limits.
At the Sept. 28 school board meeting, Hanson said school mask policies were harming children in the district and quoted a Bible verse suggesting it was better to kill oneself than to harm a child.
“It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones,” she said, reading from Luke 17:2.
At the same meeting, Hanson publicly declared the Durango school board her “enemies” and also singled out Superintendent Karen Cheser and Smith by name.
“I consider that a threat, a real threat, actually,” Smith said during an interview Friday. “I think that’s the purpose of those statements, to intimidate and to make you feel threatened.”
Smith said she doesn’t know if there’s anything behind what she called Hanson’s threats, and she added that Hanson is not the only person who has antagonized the school board.
“It’s not just one community member,” Smith said. “But it is a small group of them.”
Brown said she considers both situations from the Sept. 28 and Tuesday meetings to be examples of hate speech.
“To be honest, everyone who was there on both nights was pretty shaken up afterward,” Brown said. “And there’s, you know, staff that don’t feel safe. Board members that don’t feel safe.”
Smith said the school district recently hired a new board clerk, who happens to be a person of color, and the clerk was offended and felt fearful after the Nazi imagery was displayed Tuesday evening.
“The local Jewish temple reached out to me and they were pretty disappointed,” Smith said. “We have several Jewish students, especially in our high school and all throughout our schools. That kind of signage is really offensive to them and to their families and to their faith.”
Stritikus, a junior at Durango High School, a self-described member of the LGBT community and a student representative to the board, said he couldn’t believe his eyes when he spotted the SS Bolts appear in Hanson’s Zoom window. He said he was completely shocked and revolted that someone would display Nazi imagery during a public school board meeting.
“My great grandfather fought in WWII against Nazis,” Stritikus said Friday during an interview. “My grandmother immigrated to America after the Nazis burnt down her village. She remembers hiding in caves so that the Nazis wouldn’t kill her.
“I was just horrified that somebody would display that in a public board meeting for completely no reason. I thought it was just absolutely childish and disgraceful.”
Stritikus said he can’t speak to Hanson’s true intent, but he guessed that she was comparing the school board to the Nazi regime that systematically murdered millions of people for their political and religious beliefs and affiliations, ethnic status and skin color, and sexual orientation.
“I just think it’s absurd to compare being muted at a school board meeting because you broke a very clear and reasonable set of rules with a regime that genocided millions of people,” Stritikus said. “I think that was kind of, just ridiculously absurd.”
Stritikus said Hanson has disrupted previous meetings, but none that compared to her actions Tuesday night.
“I don’t want to have to be the adult in the room to have to point that out and police that, but it’s unfortunate that it happened,” Stritikus said.
The student board member has already seen his fair share of confrontation, too. At a special school board meeting in August about COVID-19 school policies, he said a crowd of attendees made many disruptions and outbursts.
Stritikus spoke up in front of the crowd to share his perspective about mask use as a student: He said his grandmother and grandfather had been diagnosed with cancer and his mother had breast cancer.
“I think masking protects our community; it’s not about protecting yourself,” Stritikus said. “It’s about protecting those who are vulnerable. I don’t think they liked hearing that. Once again, I respect individuals who disagree with my opinion, but I was shocked at how they chose to do that.”
One individual interrupted Stritikus as he spoke, and a couple other people booed him when he shared his thoughts about mask use.
Stritikus wasn’t the only student to see the hate symbol at the Tuesday meeting. Twenty-five to 30 kids were watching the meeting for a class assignment, Smith said.
“For our public participation, we hold everyone to a pretty straightforward set of rules,” Stritikus said. “One of the rules is that you can’t name district employees. She named a district employee and President Smith muted her microphone. She clearly was angered by that and decided to display the SS Bolts.”
The Durango 9-R School Board released a statement Wednesday evening addressing the incident:
“The Durango 9-R Board of Education unequivocally condemns any form of hate speech and will not allow hostile acts to distract from our efforts to foster vibrant, safe and inclusive environments for all 9-R students, families and staff. Hate speech has no place in our community, and it is incumbent upon all of us to speak out against antisemitism, racism and bigotry, wherever and whenever it arises. We are all committed to utilizing our powers, policies, actions and laws to pursue inclusion, equity and respect for all.”
cburney@durangoherald.com
