The special meeting of the Spotsylvania County School Board on August 23 went into chaos after the far-left block of Shelley, Braswell, and Daniels voted against adding public comment to the agenda.  The motion to add public comment failed 3-3 with Grampp absent.  A large group of citizens attended the special meeting.   The meeting was adjourned shortly thereafter. 

At the previous emergency meeting on August 11, public comment was not originally on the agenda but a motion passed to allow public comment.  Twigg, Abuismail, and Phelps wanted public comment added to the August 23 special meeting just like the August 11 meeting.  This would allow citizens the opportunity to speak on the masks issue. Mr Abuismail stated “As elected officials, we are public servants and these guys out here pay our paychecks….we owe it to them”.

In true authoritarian manner, the school board chair Dawn Shelley was adamant about censoring the public from commenting on this hot button issue.  Both Braswell and Daniels followed Shelley’s lead. The citizens that attended the meeting were clearly upset at the censorship and authoritarian behavior of Shelley, Braswell, and Daniels.

Shelley banged her gavel and attempted to remove people from the crowd individually.   Courtland District Member Rabih Abuismail immediately reacted and said “he is a tax paying constituent; he has every right to stay in the audience.  Unbelievable. I will not stand for this.   If we are going to do this, I call to adjourn the meeting right now”.  Abuismail further added “I move to adjourn if we are going to be treating these people like this”.