At the May 9 school board meeting, Spotsylvania County school board member Nicole Cole made a motion to censor a citizen for expressing their views during public comment. During Cole’s motion, she brings up her family members and the son of April Gillespie.

Cole has routinely attacked citizens first amendment rights during public comment by attempting to censor speakers. Below is the video of Cole’s motion.

:05 – Cole states she received a letter from a person named “Ron Cole”, the father of Nicole Cole’s son. Cole voluntarily discloses her son’s father in public forum.

:16 – Cole accuses a citizen, Roy Searles, of making disparaging racially motivated comments about her son. Look at what Cole does here. She twists the facts to play the victim card. There was a video of Cole’s son making racial statements on an Instagram post that was publicly available back in January. We saw the video. We have the video.

:26- Cole states that this issue with her son should not be made on public record and that a student’s name should not be shared. The problem with Cole’s argument is that the Instagram post of Cole’s son making a racial comment was publicly available. Racial comments, whether it’s in jest or seriously made, by a family member of a sitting school board member is in fact a story.

:30 – Cole does not get to declare privacy on a public video or when she talks about her family publicly. That is not how the internet works. Student’s names are regularly published in the Free Lance star in the high school sports section and at school board meetings.

:48 – Cole claims that Searles made multiple infractions over a number of meetings. Cole’s word soup is on full display here. She follows up saying that Searles used profanity at students yet does not actually provide evidence.

1:20 – Cole requests that Gillespie recuse herself from the vote on the motion to censor Searles. Cole brings up Gillespie’s son and Searles daughter claiming they are dating. Cole’s hypocrisy is amazing. Cole does not want her son mentioned in public forum yet mentions a personal allegation with the children of Searles and Gillespie?