{"id":50756,"date":"2020-10-27T16:22:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-27T22:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/update-cortez-school-board-limits-public-comment-after-threat\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:53:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:53:13","slug":"update-cortez-school-board-limits-public-comment-after-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/update-cortez-school-board-limits-public-comment-after-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"Update: Cortez school board limits public comment after threat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Lance
Lance McDaniel, front right, with Montezuma-Cortez school board members in 2018.<\/span>The Journal file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Montezuma-Cortez Re-1 Board of Education virtual meeting on Oct. 20 shut down early after members of the community unmuted themselves to yell a threat and comments directed at board member Lance McDaniel.<\/p>\n

A petition to remove McDaniel from the Montezuma-Cortez school board has been making rounds in Cortez since July.<\/p>\n

One attendee said: \u201cLance if you (inaudible), I\u2019m gonna rape all your daughters,\u201d at which point Board of Education President Sherri Wright shut down the Zoom meeting.<\/p>\n

Board members attended the meeting in person, but members of the public joined via Zoom.<\/p>\n

Superintendent Lori Haukeness said the incident was reported to the Cortez Police Department, which is investigating the source of the threat. Some members of the public signed onto the Zoom call with only a first name, a single letter or the type of mobile phone they used.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this situation, it was a direct threat, and we will take this to the furthest legal parameters,\u201d Haukeness said.<\/p>\n

Virtual meetings have had higher attendance and participation than in-person meetings, so the option will continue to be available, Haukeness said.<\/p>\n

But a shortfall of the virtual meetings is inappropriate comments, she said.<\/p>\n

Wright said during the meeting that the board would not address comments that are not directly related to students\u2019 education or comments that are inappropriate and hateful.<\/p>\n

One public comment from a Zoom attendee signed on as \u201cMindy\u201d said McDaniel \u201cclaims to be Antifa,\u201d or anti-fascist, and is \u201chindering our children.\u201d<\/p>\n

A board news release Friday afternoon stated members were \u201cshocked, disheartened and disappointed\u201d by the comments. It did not identify McDaniel as the target of the attacks.<\/p>\n

The school board \u201cstrives to serve as a positive role model of civic leadership for students by, among other things, treating each other and the public with dignity and respect, notwithstanding differences of opinion,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

Because of the comments directed at McDaniel, the board now plans to limit public comments during meetings to a total of two minutes.<\/p>\n

Cortez Police Chief Vern Knuckles said the department was investigating the threat. Using a list of participants and their IP addresses \u2013 a numeric address given to a computer connected to the internet \u2013 the department is working with the Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s Office to identify the individual who made the statement.<\/p>\n

The Police Department will then talk with the district attorney about possible actions, Knuckles said.<\/p>\n

McDaniel has not responded to The Journal\u2019s<\/em> emailed requests for comment. However, after the meeting Oct. 20, he posted on Twitter:<\/p>\n

\u201cAt tonight\u2019s school board meeting, someone wished rape on my daughter, called me a pedophile and was attacked for delivering pizza to a middle school LGBTQ lunch club one a week. I\u2019m hated by the right people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Petition to remove McDaniel<\/div>\n

A petition drive to remove McDaniel from the school board picked up steam in July.<\/p>\n

According to the statement of grounds<\/a> for the recall, acquired by KSJD, a group of district members wants McDaniel removed because he \u201chas shown a lack of leadership\u201d and has \u201cproven to be a poor role model for our children.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of the school children in our community follow him on social media,\u201d and McDaniel posts \u201cpersonal opinions, likes and dislikes,\u201d according to the statement for grounds for recall.<\/p>\n

School board members volunteer their time and services, and are unpaid elected officials.<\/p>\n

The organizers of the petition, Malynda Nelsen and Deborah McHenry, did not respond to The Journal\u2019s <\/em>requests for comment.<\/p>\n

The petition formed after a Facebook post from McDaniel ignited heated exchanges on social media and in Cortez City Council meetings in December.<\/p>\n

His post referenced proposed names for the park on the south side of Cortez, now Veterans Park. McDaniel expressed disappointment that South Park had not been chosen as the name for the park, and added, \u201cDamn veterans won again.\u201d<\/p>\n

He later said he mistakenly thought Veterans Park was the name of the south side park site.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was meant as a lighthearted comment, it was in no way meant to be disrespectful to veterans,\u201d he told The Journal in January.<\/p>\n

The petition has been deemed sufficient by the Montezuma County Clerk & Recorder\u2019s Office and faces four officially notarized protests, said Kim Percell, Montezuma County clerk & recorder.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy next step will be to secure a hearing judge and set a date for the hearing,\u201d Percell said.<\/p>\n

ehayes@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Comment directed at McDaniel, who faces recall drive, is investigated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[155,13,28,167,51],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-50756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-education","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-local-news-lead","tag-police"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50756"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87822,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50756\/revisions\/87822"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50756"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=50756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}