‘Hard to take you seriously.’ Ardrey Kell lockdown raises tensions between CMS, activist

Long-simmering tensions between some public officials and the leader of Mecklenburg County’s Moms for Liberty turned personal last week when a school board member met concerns about a high school lockdown with criticism of her own.

Brooke Weiss, the chair of Moms for Liberty’s Mecklenburg County chapter, emailed a letter to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools officials, including Superintendent Crystal Hill, five days after the Ardrey Kell lockdown, describing the emotions it caused. The response came from at-large school board member Jennifer De La Jara.

“It’s just so hard to take you seriously,” De La Jara wrote in an email to Weiss. “Your organization pals around with Mark Robinson on legislative day, a man who called the survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooter a bunch of ‘spoiled bastards.’ How about you direct some of your energy toward smart gun protections and ownership and not electing people who are pushing hateful and disruptive rhetoric?”

De La Jara’s response came after Weiss, whose organization advocates for conservative values in schools and who is an Ardrey Kell parent, was among dozens of people who rushed to the campus Sept. 22 because a single robotext indicated there may be a shooter on campus. Police later announced it was a hoax.

While Weiss offered gratitude for police and school personnel, she said the first robotext sent to parents should have been worded differently because it caused “panic and was premature.”

Typically, Weiss and public officials butt heads over school policy and logistics. But this time was personal — something that’s become increasingly true. Weiss has launched attacks against public officials such as CMS board member Melissa Easley, who Weiss says has used her seat as a platform for activism against the Parents Bill of Rights, and against a county commissioner who took an exchange student to Charlotte Pride and doesn’t believe libraries should ban books.

De La Jara replied to the email within an hour of receiving it and attacked Weiss for her organization’s views, alleged support of North Carolina candidate for governor Mark Robinson and failing to advocate for teachers getting higher pay.

De La Jara told the Observer she acknowledges Weiss’ trauma and understands she is shaken up from the incident.

“My sincerest hope is that she will understand how candidates she actively supports in her Moms For Liberty role like Mark Robinson actually add to her trauma,” De La Jara said. “Maybe Ms. Weiss will come around and distance herself from dangerous lawmakers who are adding to her trauma.”

Ardrey Kell lockdown text

Weiss says she “immediately melted, panicked and ran screaming like a lunatic out of CVS” when she received the robotext from Ardrey Kell Principal Jamie Brooks indicating a possible shooter.

“I don’t know how to describe or process the feelings that happened over the next ninety minutes,” Weiss wrote to Hill and the board.

She later told the Observer: “Hoax or not, that 90 minutes was terrifying.”

Weiss also wrote in her email about instructions she gave to her daughter, including jumping out of the window of the second-floor classroom. De La Jara took offense to that instruction.

“How about you honor the teachers by not asking your student to disobey their direction during an emergency situation,” De La Jara wrote.

Weiss and De La Jara exchanged more emails, with De La Jara continuing her attack on Moms for Liberty and the politicians the group is allowing take “center stage” at events and promoting “their violence-inducing behavior.”

And Weiss demanded an apology from De La Jara.

“You are a disgusting human being, a really horrible person for sending this to a traumatized parent,” Weiss said. “You have no idea what my views are on gun control. You should be ashamed of yourself and embarrassed.”

Series of clashes

Moms for Liberty Mecklenburg County launched in March 2021 and was the first chapter in the state. Moms for Liberty, Weiss and her husband are a presence at school board meetings. The group strongly advocated for mask-optional policies during the pandemic and a return to in-person learning.

The chapter has pushed CMS to adopt a new book review process, and lobbied for school choice, legislation to protect women in sports and the Parents’ Bill of Rights

Weiss, on her X account, formerly known as Twitter, posts explicit images she says are found in some CMS library books and calls out specific public officials.

In August, Weiss commented on a post by Mecklenburg County Commissioner Laura Meier of a foreign exchange student from India she’s hosting. In that photo, the student is at a Pride event in Charlotte next to a participant.

“Wonder how her parents back in India feel about you having her pose with a man dressed in satanic horns,” Weiss wrote.

Meier shot back, telling Weiss the student’s parents “are well aware of everything,” and called her comments disgusting.

But Weiss says the email she sent to Hill and board members was from her, as a parent, not as a member of Moms for Liberty. In the email, she praised the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department for the quick response to the Ardrey Kell situation. She also thanked teachers for the way they helped students remain calm.

None of what she wrote, Weiss says, deserved the response De La Jara sent.

“To retraumatize a parent and politicize the issue is really disgusting,” Weiss said of De La Jara’s response. “Besides, I have never spoken publicly on anything political. My activism has been strictly related to education. She made a lot of (incorrect) assumptions on my political views, and who I support for the governor’s race. But the point is her attack was beyond inappropriate and unprofessional.”

CMS board chair Elyse Dashew responded in an email obtained by the Observer that she shared concerns about the communication from one of her colleagues and that “We must hold ourselves to a high standard of interacting respectfully and compassionately with our parents and community. “

Neither Dashew nor De La Jara are running for re-election in November.

In an email to Weiss, De La Jara wrote: “You are a mom who is rightfully fearful for her child. It’s just unfathomable to me that you would lift up hateful gun violence and rhetoric by centering Mark Robinson at your M4L events. But who knows? Maybe this traumatic event will make you see things otherwise. Maybe you will start to point out how his behavior and words about victims are harmful and hateful.”

Another Ardrey Kell parent perspective

Heather Zindars, who has a sophomore at Ardrey Kell, says the “social media panic gets out of control” in situations like the lockdown.

“Parents started posting what their child was telling them was occurring in the school and that’s what made me panic,” Zindars said about various posts on social media. “This was before we got the robotext from Ms. Brooks. The social media post was really what made matters worse. We were hearing stuff about shots fired, people screaming, lots of banging, and guns being seen in the cafeteria.”

Zindars says everything was heightened and the text seemed to downplay what was communicated on social media by the time she saw it.

“There was about 90 minutes where I had no idea if he was OK,” Zindars said.

Zindars, like Weiss, praised the way Ardrey Kell handled the situation and next time maybe an earlier robotext could be sent out so parents know no shots have been fired and no one was injured.

“I don’t think it matters how much training you have for these things until you experience it,” Zindars said. “I appreciated how the staff took the threat seriously and did everything they could to keep our children safe.”