Quick Take
In a 4-2 vote Wednesday night, Pajaro Valley Unified School District trustees rejected a resolution to censure trustee Gabe Medina over inflammatory remarks and previous behavior.
The Pajaro Valley Unified School District governing board rejected by a majority vote a resolution to censure trustee Gabe Medina during its Wednesday night meeting – which saw multiple trustees come to tears and heated exchanges between Medina and trustee Misty Navarro.
Trustees Olivia Flores and Navarro supported the censure of Medina, while trustees Carol Turley, Joy Flynn, Jessica Carrasco and Medina rejected it. Trustee Daniel Dodge Jr. was absent.
The board’s censure resolution against Medina came after a letter from Santa Cruz County Superintendent of Schools Faris Sabbah addressed to the board about his concerns of comments made at its April 16 meeting that he said appeared to “invoke anti-Semitic tropes” and potential violations of the laws and policies regulating the board’s meetings.
Sabbah’s letter didn’t include specific trustees’ names or specific comments, but Jewish newspapers cited a comment from Flynn and Medina’s comments directed at several Jewish community members in the audience. He said he doesn’t “see you people at protests against immigration. I don’t see you at protests when people are being taken away right now.”
The censure resolution included those comments as well as other incidents from prior meetings and a subsequent closed session during which Medina reportedly told a board member to “shut the f–k up.”
During the Wednesday meeting, trustees Turley, Carrasco and Flynn said they hope to improve the board’s relations without a censure, while trustees Navarro and Flores said they had to denounce Medina’s behavior.
The majority of speakers during public comment spoke in support of Medina and against the censure. That included teachers, students and community members, including Jewish UC Santa Cruz students and a faculty member. Many asked the board to remove the censure item from the agenda.
Speakers in support of the censure resolution included Rabbi Debbie Israel, Gil Stein, Roz Shorenstein and several others.
After the censure was rejected, Flynn asked Flores what happens next.
“Hopefully, we will learn to work together as a board,” said Flores. “And we hopefully will approve some training coming up and be able to have some conflict resolution and move beyond this.”
This story will be updated.
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