County public school administrators are investigating an incident at Beachland Elementary in early April in which former School Board member Tiffany Justice has been accused of angrily disrupting classrooms and flouting the board’s mandatory facemask policy.
Two Beachland Elementary fifth-grade teachers last week begged the School Board for help coping with the fallout from the parental rights advocate’s confrontational behavior during the week of April 5.
Justice and her fifth-grade son refused to wear facial coverings, as required by School Board policy, and Justice angrily disregarded educators’ directions during her April 7 visit to the school, teachers Megan Brescia and Tina Newberry told the School Board last Tuesday.
Newberry and Brescia also accused Justice of repeatedly telling lies about the incident during an April 8 interview on Newsradio WTTB’s local news magazine podcast while complaining about her treatment at Beachland Elementary.
“Currently I have a parent in my classroom who has made my job a nightmare,” Brescia said. “The constant threatening and bullying tactics on her part is something I will no longer tolerate.
“She has created a hostile situation,” Brescia said. “She has personally attacked my teaching practices, grading policies, classroom management and even accused me of lowering her [child’s grades].
“As witnessed by another colleague, the parent [also] berated the principal in front of the children,” Brescia told the board. “I look forward to your support, so I am able to handle this unfortunate disruption with compassion and grace.”
Newberry told the board, “I am appalled with the actions of one parent who has no regard for me as an educator.
“For instance, the parent had an issue with the location of recess and where the children could play,” Newberry said. “I informed her she could remain in the area, but the children needed to move to the recess court. She then turned to the students and started pointing with both fingers at each of them and angrily said ‘No! Did you hear that? She said no!’
“Not only was this in complete disregard to me, but her actions were disrespectful to the PE area teacher,” Newberry told the board. “I appreciate your time and hope your support and advice will hinder any future negative [actions].”
Justice, a founder of the Moms for Liberty parental rights group, declined to comment for this article.
Her personal statement on the Moms for Liberty website blames teachers unions and government bureaucrats for hindering “innovation” in schools but doesn’t explain how or why.
Justice drew attention to the conflict at Beachland by spending more than 14 minutes during interviews on Newsradio WTTB on April 6 and April 8 complaining about the way educators treated her on April 5 and April 7, including rejecting some, but not all, of her requests for special treatment.
“There was no disruption on my part,” Justice claimed during her April 8 radio interview.
“The fact that the district acted this way, and the school acted this way, shows they do have something to hide,” Justice said, without offering any evidence of wrongdoing. “They were defensive.”
Beachland Elementary allowed Justice and her fifth-grade son to sit in his class without a facemask, in violation of School Board policy, but turned down her request to visit the school on April 5 without providing 24 hours’ notice and her request to eat lunch with her son during her visit on April 7, Justice said during the radio interviews.
Justice also criticized School Board member Teri Barenborg for listing valid reasons for the 24-hour notice policy for visiting classrooms – such as protecting students and minimizing disruptions – and pointing out Justice voted for the 24-hour notice policy in 2018 while a member of the School Board.
“When you have board members defending the system, instead of doing their job, which is advocating for students and families, you’ve got a real problem,” Justice said. “When the good of the system is put over the good of the child, the system needs to change.”
Justice, who represented District 5 on the School Board from November 2016 through November 2020, emailed her complaint about Beachland Elementary to all five School Board members, but none of them took her side in the dispute.
School Board Chairman Brian Barefoot, who succeeded Justice representing District 5, called Justice’s behavior at Beachland Elementary School “totally unacceptable.”
“It was extremely uncomfortable and very unfair for the teachers,” Barefoot said in an interview last Thursday. “It’s hard to believe that any parent would make an issue, a scene that she did. This is just over the top.”
It’s up to Schools Superintendent David Moore and his administrative team to decide upon the appropriate response to Justice’s behavior at Beachland during the week of April 5, Barefoot said.
Barenborg, the board’s vice chairwoman, and School Board member Jacqueline Rosario declined to comment Friday about Justice’s behavior at Beachland because the school district is conducting an investigation.
“The situation is under investigation and until I receive all of the information, I won’t make public comments too prematurely,” Rosario said.
But Rosario pointed out the School Board approved the Safe at School plan, including the policy requiring everyone to wear a facemask in school buildings, last summer when Justice was still a member.
“It is a plan that is still active today and was active the day Tiffany Justice visited Beachland Elementary School,” Rosario noted.
