NEW HANOVER COUNTY — After the right-wing extremist group, the Proud Boys, attended a school board meeting last week — with one Proud Boy member arguing with an audience member — the public has questioned how the situation was handled by the board, school district and law enforcement.
On Feb. 7, community members packed the New Hanover County Board of Education Center in anticipation of a vote on the sports participation policy for transgender middle school students.
READ MORE: NHCSB reverses transgender sport team freedoms, meeting recessed over clash involving a Proud Boy
Several people in attendance questioned why the Proud Boys were allowed admission to the meeting in gaiter face masks, sunglasses and hats, claiming the members were breaking the law.
North Carolina General Statute 14-12.8 prohibits people from wearing masks, hoods or other devices where the person, face or voice is disguised so as to conceal identity on public property. Violations are punishable as a Class I misdemeanor.
North Carolina’s law was passed in 1953, as a wave of similar legislation across the country was created in response to the Ku Klux Klan.
However, these laws have often faced opposition from citizens across the political spectrum due to concerns over First Amendment rights. In removing the protection of anonymity, opponents have argued the masks limit their freedom of expression and make them targets for potential harassment.
The law also presents a gray area when it comes to using masks as symbolic speech, or discerning “nonthreatening” masks — like Halloween costumes — with disguises intended to intimidate.
The legality of anti-mask laws only got murkier when the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Along with many other states, North Carolina required face coverings in public spaces from November 2020 to May 2021, when it was suggested fully-vaccinated people could forgo the protections.
NHCS deferred to the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office, which oversees security at school board meetings, for questions on meeting behavior under the law.
“The district works in collaboration with the board of education and law enforcement to ensure public meetings are safe for everyone in attendance,” NHCS spokesperson Russell Clark said.
NHCSO Lt. Jerry Brewer said North Carolina General Statute 14-12.8 was “relaxed” during the Covid-19 pandemic to make an exception for face coverings worn in public spaces where they may not usually be allowed — such as banks and government buildings.
Though mask mandates have been lifted statewide and in New Hanover County, Brewer said the exception is still in effect. He said a a memo came down through law enforcement, but couldn’t point to the source; he said he would look into it, but did not respond with clarification by press.
[Editor’s Note: Gov. Roy Cooper did pass S.B. 232 in 2020 which makes exceptions for masks for health purposes, as well as costumes and theatrical performances. It is unclear if this bill is what Brewer was referring to.]
Port City Daily reached out to Attorney General Josh Stein regarding an exception to the general statute. AG spokesperson Ahmed Nazneen said the department was not authorized to provide an answer, pointing instead to law enforcement or the General Assembly.
The legal team for New Hanover County, which abides by the same state statute, offered this response on the matter:
“We anticipate courts would interpret with a carve out allowance for masks providing a medical function, in contrast to those masks with a primary purpose to conceal identity, such as those worn as part of a uniform or costume.”
However, Brewer argues any face covering could be justified as a mask for Covid-19 purposes, even the ones the Proud Boys were wearing.
“It’s either all or nothing,” Brewer said. “What I mean by that is, if you tell them they got to take off their mask, you got to tell the 70-year-old people sitting in there, they also got to take theirs off.”
Brewer surmised the Proud Boys would have argued with deputies if they had been asked to leave due to their disguises, pointing out other attendees were allowed to wear masks. At the school board meeting last week, a handful of people still opted to wear face protections, mostly surgical-like masks, in the close quarters with a packed house.
Port City Daily made multiple attempts to reach the Cape Fear Proud Boys to ask why they continue to wear masks, despite their past criticisms of mask mandates. In 2021, they attended a school board meeting in support of free speech and to protest the district’s mask requirement. They also showed up at the health board meeting in November 2021 when the county lifted its mask mandate.
No response was received by publication.
Brewer couldn’t provide an exact answer to when a face covering would cross the line — for example, a hood worn by the KKK.
“I don’t know,” Brewer said. “We’d have to be faced with that position.”
He used an example of a KKK hat versus a Boston Red Sox one, saying both are protected by freedom of expression.
“That’s kind of the world we live in and law enforcement — you can’t pick and choose who you’re going to enforce the law,” Brewer said.
Like all citizens, Brewer added the Proud Boys have a right to attend school board meetings.
“Normally, they’re not an issue,” Brewer said. “They’re an issue when they get to arguing with the other side of the aisle.”
There was a confrontation between a Proud Boy and another audience member during the Feb. 7 meeting. Board chair Pete Wildeboer had to recess the meeting amid the chaos. He attempted to defuse the situation — to no avail — while sheriff deputies stood between the quarreling attendees. Both parties volunteered to leave and were escorted out.
The school board has a long history of unruly meetings and loud comments from attendees of all political leanings, which have become the norm. In the most notable example, the school board had to recess and postpone a 2021 meeting after it was unable to maintain order. One person was detained and two people almost came to blows.
Port City Daily reached out to 12 speakers from last week’s meeting; half responded. Three said they felt intimidated by the Proud Boys’ behavior, including Laurie Janus, a mother of NHCS graduates who spoke against prohibiting transgender middle schoolers from choosing the sports team that aligns with their gender identity.
“I’ve been to other school board meetings; I’ve been to a lot of political events, including the women’s marches and things like that in Wilmington,” Janus said. “And that meeting was really unusual in the amount of tension and the amount of aggression shown by the Proud Boys.”
On the NHCS video recording of the meeting, the Proud Boys can be heard chanting the pledge of allegiance at the beginning of the meeting, as well shouting their approval or disapproval of speakers’ thoughts during public comment, though they weren’t the only ones doing so.
Other audience members also shouted out their thoughts, though interruptions were scattered and not from the same person every time.
Janus said she is not easy to unnerve, but did feel a little nervous to speak, due to the group’s presence. Yet, she worried the most for the student speakers, she said, one of whom was a transgender student.
“They were so aggressive when that person spoke,” she said. “That really made me upset.”
On the district’s video recording, boos can be heard after student Jett Tidd spoke, yet they are largely drowned out by cheers. When Caroline Morin, executive director of the LGBTQ Center of the Cape Fear Coast, presented during public comment, the Proud Boys loudly laughed when she said the LBGTQ community does not have an agenda.
As various speakers spoke against allowing transgender middle schoolers to play on the sports team of the opposite sex, the Proud Boys can be heard shouting “yeah” or “that’s right.”
Another speaker, John Zino, said he didn’t feel threatened by their behavior, even though the energy in the room was emotionally charged and a little chaotic.
“I do wish people would have acted with a little more civility toward one another and listened to each other’s viewpoints,” Zino said.
Some attendees from the meeting are asking for accountability for how the night unfolded. Specifically, activists questioned the board’s lack of consistency in enforcing policies and decorum rules.
“In the past, the board and then-chair [Stephanie] Kraybill had made a big fuss about blocking aisles,” parent Kristina Mercier said. “When the huge contingent of Proud Boys came in, they had to stand three-deep, and this blocked the aisle along the back of the room.”
Some people have questioned why the Proud Boys were not removed from the meeting for disruptive behavior, pointing to the board’s recent decision to uphold a trespass notice against parent and activist Sandy Eyles.
READ MORE: Banned activist calls out inconsistencies in NHCS trespass notices
Eyles was banned from NHCS meetings under policy 5020 for verbal arguments in two meetings last fall. She was cited for yelling, displaying temper and acting in an aggressive manner and, therefore, will not be able to attend meetings until the end of June.
Lt. Brewer told PCD deputies fielded more problems from “the other side” on Feb. 7.
“This [incident] was some guy that was holding up a sign that said the GOP is evil and he was basically arguing with the Proud Boys so much to a point that he was like following them outside,” Brewer said. “And then we told him to lay off and come back inside, and he started yelling and screaming at us.”
After the meeting last week, NHCS spokesperson Russell Clark told PCD the district is not planning to issue trespass notices to anyone from the Feb. 7 meeting.
Clark shared there have been five formal complaints filed against the school board criticizing the way it conducted the meeting. Each complaint has been resolved; the district did not answer by press what the complaints are.
Because the district does not have the authority to address complaints directed at the board, the filers must go directly to the governing body. Clark said filers were told they could speak to the board about their complaints at public comment or via email.
PCD reached out to each board member regarding how the meeting was conducted. Stephanie Walker and Hugh McManus were the only ones to respond, but McManus chose not to comment.
Walker said the board has always faced problems with outbursts during meetings since she’s been a member; she was elected in 2020. The board should be making improvements to prevent tensions from coming to a head like they did Feb. 7, she said, and added the board chair is supposed to deal with rules of decorum. Yet, that can be challenging from the front of the room.
“I think if I’m going to be defensive at all of the chair, we can’t hear everything,” Walker said. “But I think in retrospect, it’s worse than what we think it is. I think that we should be doing something. I mean, you can’t make everyone be completely quiet. But I feel like there’s a kind of line between the kind of heckling and the intimidation that’s happening.”
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect information received after publication.
Reach journalist Brenna Flanagan at brenna@localdailymedia.com
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