James Akers, 58, spoke during the public forum at the beginning of the meeting Monday listing examples of other inconveniences that he endures for the safety and comfort of others as he undressed down to his underwear. The meeting in Dripping Springs was intended as an agenda review ahead of the regular board meeting next week, but quickly turned into a public debate about masking mandates in schools. That same week another Texas school board meeting got out of hand when a father bared his thoughts on mask mandates during a Dripping Springs School District meeting, stripping down to his underwear in defense of the mandates. The woman was wearing her mask when she arrived at the Northside Independent School District Board of Trustees meeting, district spokesman Barry Perez told KSAT.īut at some point she removed it and refused to put it back on when asked by district officials and then police. Last week an unidentified woman who refused to put her mask back on at a school board meeting in Texas was carried out of the building in her chair by police. The newly-elected Henrico School Board member has since joined in on the laughs

Public school board meetings have become a place of heated debate focusing on issues such as covid mandates and Critical Race Theory. Marcie Shea tweeted: 'I was so consumed with the heaviness of the meeting agenda, I was just relieved to have a shorter public forum and don’t notice. However, I’ve definitely gotten a good laugh since then.'ĭ reached out to Cooper for a comment.Īlthough the joke was not acknowledged during the meeting, it appears to have become a welcome moment in the midst of the serious discussions of covid, a return to school, transportation, the school resource officer program, and the potential for pre-Labor Day start times in coming years. He wrote that since the video has gone viral 'inboxes are getting slammed.'Īnother school board member admitted she hadn't realized the names were jokes. The Rising Mount Zion Baptist Church and newly elected school board member replied to the video on Twitter admitting: 'I've laughed since, but those names totally went over my head. It wasn't long before social media picked up on the prank, with a Twitter post of the video racking up 7 million views and over 76,000 retweets.Once the hilarious clip was posted online, viewers caught on to the joke names and relished in Cooper's oblivious delivery.Ī tweet of the funny video has gathered 12.2 million views and 478.6 thousand likes. I've since learned of the pranks from The Simpsons.' 'The names looked legit, and so were their associated districts and board members. In the space of one hilarious minute, he asked, in turn, for each of 'Phil McCraken', 'Suck Mahdick', 'Ophelia McCaulk', 'Eileen Dover', 'Don Kedick' and 'Wayne Kerr' to take to the podium, pausing as each name went ignored.Ĭooper,, who is a Pastor at Rising Mount Zion Baptist Church, says he wasn't familiar with pranks of this kind prior to the incident.

'It wasn't until after I read all of the names that I received a text message saying: 'Those names may not be real people lol.''

'It's not uncommon for people not to show up, so I honestly didn't think anything of it,' he told Newsweek. Not that Cooper or anyone else on the school board noticed any issue. It quickly became apparent that the names listed to be called for public comment during the meeting weren't actually real names at all.

Cooper III began calling up members of the public who had been registered to speak. Last Thursday, August 26, a meeting of the Henrico School Board fell victim when board member Reverend Dr. Read more Florida Dad Claims Mask Mandate Facilitates Child Sex Trafficking In School

Prank names school board