California school board president speaks out following ‘deranged’ death threats over flag resolution
The Sunol Glen School Board recently voted to forbid non-government flags on school grounds.
A California school board president said he and his family have received death threats from activists after the district voted on a resolution that forbids the display of banners other than the American or California state flag.
Trustees representing the Sunol Glen School Unified School District in the East Bay, which serves 270 K-8 students, voted Sept. 12 on the new rule, which critics claimed was a backdoor attempt to remove the Pride flag and other progressive symbols from school grounds.
Sunol Glen School Board President Ryan Jergensen was one of the members who voted to restrict the display of non-governmental flags.
"We feel like the board and the administration should focus on education and helping the school to be inclusive and welcoming to all students that go to the school," Jergensen told Fox News Digital. "So instead of litigating particular flags and political issues, we decided to limit what the district would fly to the U.S. flag and the California flag, as the U.S. flag is the most inclusive flag on the planet."
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Sunol Glen School Board President Ryan Jergensen was one of the two members who voted in favor of the flag resolution. (Fox News Digital )
Jergensen, who has four children attending the school district, said he has a vested interest in the community and only pushed the measure to turn the school's focus away from partisan politics and towards education. However, Jergensen said the vote led people from inside and outside the small community to behave as activists.
"When these other people came, more fighting and more contention was brought in. There was one person in our community in particular who is has been spinning up these people and inciting them to harass those of us on the board and those of us in the community that feel that our schools should focus on the students," he added.
Jergensen was recently granted a temporary restraining order against the individual in question, former school trustee Denise Kent Romo. She is married to current Trustee Peter "Ted" Romo and served on the board from 2016 to 2021 before resigning for health reasons. Jergensen was appointed to fill her seat and later won a full term in November 2022.
Kent Romo did not return Fox News Digital's request for comment.
The restraining order was filed, according to Jergensen, after he received numerous death threats targeting him and his family. Several of the death threats allegedly highlighted claims from Kent Romo, who had suggested Jergensen was anti-LGBTQ and associated with extremist organizations.
One of the threats sent to Jergensen warning that he and other Christians may need to hide their kids, wives and husbands. (Ryan Jergensen )
"When did oppression become your main goal?" one of the death threats asked. "Maybe hunting Christians or those of hate should be the backlash? Watch yourselves—for the oppressed will rise and one can only hope they do not act like you—or you may need to hide your kids, your wives, your husband's and anything you 'love.'"
Another threat falsely claimed Jergensen is a member of Moms for Liberty, telling him he better hope his membership comes with life insurance.
"Enjoy your weekend. It could be your last," the anonymous email sender added.
Jergensen said he didn't mind "spirited" disagreement" but the threats crossed a line.
"That's something I won't stand for. That's beyond the pale. That is unacceptable," Jergensen said of the emails. "So, these deranged individuals that emailed these threats seem to have been spun up by one member of our community who posted lies and accusations that I am affiliated with various hate groups, some named, some unnamed, that I have no affiliation with at all."
Ted Romo told The Pleasanton Weekly that he disagrees with Jergensen trying to draw an association between the death threats and his wife's public comments. He also suggested that the restraining order was an attempt to silence those who oppose the flag resolution vocally.
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A threat email sent to Jergensen. The email addresses and names on the messages have been removed. Curse words have also been erased. (Ryan Jergensen )
"He's a public official; public officials have to be and are accountable to the public, and people can criticize them publicly," Romo said. "What he's trying to do is to use a (temporary restraining order) application as a means to limit or to intimidate others from voicing their opposition to him and his conservative agenda."
Jergensen said he took the evidence to an Alameda County Superior Court judge to "limit the negative influence" of Kent Romo and deter her from inciting future "harassment and attacks" on his family.
Based on his understanding, the restraining order cannot limit someone's free speech to voice disagreement with an elected official. But it is an effort to limit one person's effect and hopefully create distance between the two community members.
Comments from the people living within the community are mixed since the resolution passed, according to Jergensen.
Woman holding up a gay pride flag. (Mariana Nedelcu/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
"It seems to be a reflection of the greater political discussion that we have in this country where things are fairly polarized," he said. "I have made an effort to be right down the center legally and politically, to try to keep these partisan issues out of our school, out of education, and to focus on education and educational excellence for our students. I do hear from people on both sides. I listen to them, I read their comments."
Recently, the Alameda County Democrat Central Party Committee said they would actively fundraise and work to recall Jergensen and Linda Hurley, the other school board member who voted in favor of the flag resolution.
Hurley said one of the main reasons behind the flag resolution was a case out of Boston where the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the city violated the First Amendment when it denied a conservative activist's request to fly a Christian flag on a city flagpole.
Hurley said the school district would risk incurring similar legal ramifications without the flag resolution.
While much of the anger has come from groups outside the community, Jergensen said he accepts the recall attempt because residents will decide it.
"They have a political process for recalling elected officials, but the people in this community are the ones that will vote and get to decide who represents them in our local governance for our school board," he noted.
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