The president of the Pasco Association of Educators (PAE) claims reopening schools for in-person learning is an example of “white supremacy,” and compares listening to concerned parents to following rioters breaking into the U.S. Capitol. He even says concern over student suicide is an example of “white privilege.”

Scott Wilson, PAE president, made a series of unhinged, controversial remarks during a Pasco School Board meeting this week.

The statements come as the union pushes for total remote learning for elementary schools, even with near-consensus from the medical community that it is safe to reopen schools with mitigation policies in place. The petition the union promotes baselessly calls in-person learning “unsafe and unsustainable.”Wilson’s comments were prepared, and he read them during the public commentary period of the school board meeting. He started by comparing the board’s decision to reopen schools to rallygoers in D.C. who saw rioters laying siege to the nation’s Capitol.

“There are decisions to be made. You stand on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol as people break down barriers and head to the doors. Do you follow?” Wilson asked rhetorically. “You stand at the governor’s mansion. The crowd breaks down barriers to enter the grounds. Do you follow? Or do you choose a different way? We must not ignore the culture of white supremacy and white privilege.”

He connects reopening schools to pushes to re-open everything.