It is becoming increasingly apparent to many parents that public school boards see themselves as powers unto themselves. During a school board meeting in a Chicago suburb earlier this week, board member Joel Taub took leave of his mind and screamed extraordinary vulgarities at a parent who declined to wear a mask due to a medical exemption.
Taub’s unhinged moment came during public comment during the meeting of the Glenbrook school board, where some parents were pushing back against mask mandates. A father — identified in the video of the meeting as Mark Wiermullen, though that last name may not be correct — took to the podium, removed his mask, and began to address the board. Before he could even get started, the moderator stopped him and told him he needed to put his mask back on.
The father replied by saying, “President Biden and [Illinois Governor] J.B. Pritzker both speak without a mask.” He added, “I do have an exemption,” motioning to a card hanging from a lanyard around his neck. “Will you allow me to speak?” he asked, adding, “I’m not going to interrupt you while you speak.”
The father is — of course — completely correct. Both Biden and Pritzker routinely speak from podiums without masks. But that rule is for them; There is another rule for everyone else.
The moderator states, “It’s the rule. You’re going to need to keep your mask on.” The father seemingly embarrassed, states, “I have an exemption — I mean, I don’t want to go into the whole thing about explaining to you — I don’t even know you guys and I don’t want to explain my medical situation.” Indicating that he had already received some assurance that this would not be a problem, he added, “I thought I’d be allowed to speak.”
When he is told again that he will need to put his mask on, he again appears embarrassed, but divulges a bit more about his medical situation, saying, “I can’t speak with my mask on — I can’t articulate. I have a medical — you’re not going to honor medical and religious exemptions?”
At this point, the moderator appears to back down, telling the father, “Oh, if you have a medical exemption, OK, that’s fine sir.” This part of the conversation is intermingled with both the father and the moderator speaking over each other. As the moderator is saying the father can speak, the father says, “I mean, I’m embarrassed; It’s humiliating.”
And that could have been that. Yes, it is wrong that this father had to be embarrassed and humiliated by discussing his personal medical issues in public with strangers. But at least the conversation seems to be headed toward something constructive and the father will be allowed to speak. The father asks to reset his clock, since he is only allowed two minutes to speak. The moderator agrees and the father begins again.
But Taub — who is not the moderator of the meeting and does not appear to be in control of either the meeting or his own mental faculties — chimes in, asking the moderator, “So, you’re going to let him speak without a mask?” The moderator responds that the father has a medical exemption and Taub retorts, “How do we know?” The father expresses his frustration at again being interrupted and asks Taub if he is “the mask police.” He asks again if he will be allowed to speak. The moderator says he will but asks him to wait “one moment.”
The moderator asks Taub if he has a question and the father asks if Taub is “in charge.”
This is when Taub turns the tension up to 11, retorting to the father, “Are you in charge?” The moderator attempts to gain control and tells the father to go ahead. The father begins again, but is immediately interrupted by Taub telling the moderator, “This is not what you promised; You said if they don’t wear a mask, they can’t speak.”
Then, the father did what many of us who decline to wear a worthless, germ-covered, piece of cloth over our faces have thought of doing, but few have. He offered to wear the mask on his head and then placed in on top of his head.
And that is when Taub — who has been on the board since 2007, according to the board’s website — dropped multiple F-bombs and told the man he could wear his mask on his manly parts (video here; caution: vulgar language). This behavior came from a man the board’s website describes as bring “experience in developing and negotiating complex employee benefit plans for groups of employees in many different industries including school districts.” It seems unlikely that negotiating “complex” anything where he can’t get his way is not in his set of real life skills. Taub may have an impressive resume, but his behavior at this meeting reflects that resume may be a little off the mark.
“You can wear your mask on your f***ing b***s!” Taub screamed, adding, “If you don’t wear the f***ing mask, you can get the f***k out of here!” The moderator — finally appearing to realize that he had lost control of Taub and the meeting — attempts to call for a five minute recess. Someone comes and removes the microphone from the podium, preventing the father from speaking any further — but Taub is still working himself up to a good lather. He souts to the moderator, “Get him the f*** out of the room if he can’t put his f***ing mask on!”
There were women and children present at the meeting. It is safe to say that those children were the recipients of quite an “educational” experience. What they likely learned is that loud, vulgar, threatening, and demeaning bullying is the way men like Taub settle disagreements. There is no real democratic process; Just raw power that refuses to be challenged or even questioned.
Fox News interviewed two parents — Jennifer Preston and Paul Kelly — who attended the meeting. Preston said her children were present. She described Taub’s outburst as embarrassing and called it a “terrible reflection” of the community. “These people are placed in powerful positions to make the best decisions for our kids, and I found it to be so sad and just truly a major disappointment for all the kids and all the parents and our entire community at large,” she said.
Kelly said Taub’s extreme language and the anger that spawned it — despite the fact that Taub was wearing a medical-grade mask and was distanced from the father — is “a reflection of some, not all, but some of these individuals in these positions of power who are drunk on power.” He added, “They literally absolutely have to have control and compliance, and it’s very disconcerting.”
Both parents said that many other parents and many students want the board to lift the mask mandate. In fact, Preston’s daughter is one such student. She spoke at the meeting and called for masks to be optional and for students.
Kelly said Taub is up for reelection and he plans to run against him and unseat him.
There have been calls for Taub to resign, but as North Cook News reports, the “school board has a colorful history concerning how it has treated the community in the latter part of the pandemic.” That is putting it mildly. Board member Marcelo Sztainberg compared unvaccinated students to “knife-wielders, the intoxicated,” and in the next meeting, after facing backlash from parents, the public comment section of a school board meeting disappeared from the recording placed on YouTube with the note, “technical difficulties that led to a partial recording.”
Neither Taub nor the school board has commented on Taub’s unhinged outburst, but Nort Cook News reports that a source has informed the outlet that staff at the school district “were notified the school is going mask optional on Friday.”
That may seem like a win, but since it is “granted” at the whim of a school board that seems not to care about the students or parents of the community, that pendulum could swing back at their whim. Episodes such as this across the country over the past two years — and the increased exposure of both Critical Race Theory and Gender Ideology — have caused more and more parents to opt for alternatives to public school for their kids.
One such option is Freedom Project Academy, which describes itself as being rooted firmly in the Judeo-Christian values as promoted in the Constitution by our Founding Fathers, who strove to guarantee the preservation of our God-given liberties. It is safe to say that the likes of Joel Taub would not be welcome at FPA, where civility is considered a virtue.
