Not even the Babylon Bee could come up with a headline so stunningly absurd. Yet here we are.
The Olympia (WA) School District has become a poster child nationally for what happens when identity politics comes before common sense – much of it centering around the antics of school board member (and current candidate) Talauna Reed.
Reed was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Olympia School District Board of Directors in 2022, despite a video showing her at a social justice protest in 2021 calling cops “pigs” and encouraging rioters to “tear everything up in this f***ing city until they do what we want them to do.” In another 2021 video, Reed called herself a “threat to security” during an interview about the death of her aunt – who she claims was hit and killed by a City of Olympia vehicle (a claim that has never been substantiated). At the time, Reed was running for city council.
“I’m going to infiltrate,” she said in an interview. “I’m going to get in there and be a voice from inside. They deem me a threat to security – and they need to.”
Her comments cannot be overlooked in the context of the district’s current debate around school safety.
In the first week of the school year, two students were arrested over gun incidents at Capital High School. On the first day of class, a 15-year-old brought a loaded handgun. A few days later, a 17-year-old was caught passing a realistic-looking BB gun to another student. Concerned parents have since called for the return of school resource officers, which were removed in 2020 amid a wave of anti-police animus in progressive cities like Olympia.
“I’ve had kids at Capital clear back to 2013 and I’ve seen the violence and drug issues at the school get progressively worse,” one parent said during public testimony.
“We’re the only district in the county that doesn’t have SROs right now,” said another. “We’ve got to turn the tide on our shared perception of law enforcement and how we view them.”
In a meeting on September 14, the board approved a plan to allow the district to begin discussions with the city around resurrecting the school resource officer program.
After the meeting, Reed took to her campaign Facebook page to set the record straight on what the vote meant.
First of all, there was not a vote to reinstate SRO's at last night’s meeting. There was a policy update that was voted on specifying terms for the current security measures in our schools and strengthening terms IF a SRO is reinstated but the board did NOT vote on reinstating SRO's last night nor was a contract negotiated with OPD. Part of the policy approved last night specified that board members MUST vote on reinstating SRO's to make sure that OSD administration cannot bring police into schools without at least bringing it to a vote.
As I stated last night, I will not support any motion to permanently place armed police officers into schools. Police are not educators and do not belong in Schools except during limited emergency situations.
Shocking that a woman who called police officers “pigs” would oppose the idea of school resources officers, I know.
Reed also had a message for parents who disagree with her position.
“If you don't support me as a candidate, I would encourage you to find something else to do about the things you don’t like in the district instead of trolling my page. I have plenty of volunteers that monitor this page, and they will remove comments that are not relevant or contain false information.”
While Reed’s disdain for police and opposition to the SRO program is well documented, it did not stop her fellow board directors from voting to put her on a committee that will decide whether the program should resume.
Baffling, even by Olympia School District standards.
In a meeting on September 28, board directors voted to name Reed and District 5 Director Scott Clifthorne to the newly created OSA School Safety Citizen Advisory Committee. The committee will be tasked with crafting policies and procedures “that will guide any formal partnership with the school district and the police department” and “serve as the springboard for any negotiation between the district and the police department for any future school/police officer program.”
While the advisory committee will also include 10 students, 4 staff members, and 4 community members, the decision as to whether the SRO program is revived and in what form ultimately falls to the school board for approval.
Why someone who referred to herself as a “threat to security” would be appointed to serve on the school board in the first place, let alone be put in charge of determining the district’s security plan moving forward, is beyond comprehension.
Reed should sit this one out – and Olympia voters should ensure she sits out future meetings by voting for someone else in November.
