ROANOKE CO., Va. – For the second month in a row, an arrest was made at a Roanoke County School Board meeting.
The man arrested Thursday night was Brent Brewer, a parent of a transgender student in Roanoke County.
Brewer was arrested for disorderly conduct after comments rang out in the audience while a parent was speaking during public comment. That parent was sharing a statement from Danny Clawson, one of the people arrested at last month’s board meeting.
Clawson spoke with 10 News during a peaceful demonstration just before Thursday’s meeting.
“In times of social pressure like this, it’s really important to stand your ground. It’s really important to stick to the values that you care about and you know will make your community safer,” Clawson said.
Many others, like student Tristan Shepherd, joined in speaking out over the Virginia Department of Education’s new model policies for transgender students.
“We want to show other transgender students that even though they’re trying to pass these policies against them ... they’re not alone,” Shepherd said.
Others spoke in favor of the policies, like local parent Jasmine Alexander.
“I believe the state’s model policy reflects mutual respect between parent, child, and teacher relationship,” Alexander said.
By the end of the meeting, Chairman Brent Hudson spoke on the series of incidents that have transpired over the past few months.
“Easy to see that everyone here is passionate, one way or the other, for whatever opinion that you have. We may disagree but that doesn’t mean I don’t love you, it doesn’t mean that I don’t respect you and it doesn’t mean that I don’t hear you,” Hudson said.
The board voted unanimously to adopt the model policies.
We’re told the new policies will go into effect immediately.