[ad_1]
In the wake of accusations that a Cypress-Fairbanks ISD board member secretly recorded community leaders, the school board is set to update its standard operating procedures this week.
If approved, the new policy would prohibit trustees from recording conversations with members of the public, administration officials including the superintendent, and other board members without the consent of all involved parties.
After the school board’s vice president Natalie Blasingame admitted she recorded a fellow trustee’s wife and a former Harris County Republican Party precinct chair without their knowledge, several residents came forward saying they were more concerned about threats from Blasingame’s “best friend” Damon Lenahan to release the audio and potentially harm the reputations of community leaders.
Numerous Cy-Fair parents have also shared examples of Lenahan’s combative Facebook posts under the name “Bam Lenahan,” which say things like, “I don’t want to ruin or destroy you.”
The Cy-Fair ISD board meets at 6 p.m. Thursday, September 4, for a workshop and will vote on its standard operating procedures September 8. The board’s current operating procedure manual, last updated in May 2024, does not reference audio recordings.
Blasingame said last week she’s sure the initiative is targeting her but she doesn’t have a problem with it. She said she records conversations with people who have made false accusations about her or lied about her, in order to protect herself.
She surmised that the standard operating procedures item was placed on the agenda by Scott Henry, the board president and Blasingame’s opponent in the November 4 election. When reached for comment, Henry said a few trustees expressed concerns about being recorded without their knowledge.
“The Governance Committee reviewed the issue and recommended updating our Board Operating Procedures to address it,” Henry said in an email last week. “It’s unfortunate that this step is necessary, but it’s important we set clear expectations, so our board members remain professional and respectful to each other and the public.”
A third opponent is challenging incumbents Henry and Blasingame in the Place 6 race for trustee. Prairie View A&M University professor Cleveland Lane Jr. thought he’d only be running against Henry, but Blasingame surprised everyone when she abandoned her current position, Place 5, and decided to run against another incumbent, saying last week that she thinks a slate of GOP-endorsed candidates that does not include Henry is best suited for the challenges ahead.
From left, Scott Henry, Natalie Blasingame, and Cleveland Lane Jr. are running for Place 6 in the Cy-Fair ISD school board election.
Screenshots
Lane said he was disappointed in the situation. He said he has a bond with his teammates — the “pro-public education” slate of Lane, Lesley Guilmart, and Kendra Camarena — to make sure the district continues to move in a positive direction.
“We’re going to put the trust back in trustee,” he said. “The community has to believe in us. We’re representing the people of the community, and we have a very diverse community. We have to be able to communicate.”
Blasingame confirmed last week that she’d recorded a conversation with Bethany Scanlon, the wife of CFISD trustee Lucas Scanlon, and Jeff Ivey, a former Harris County Republican Party precinct chair, without their knowledge. She did that, she said, because she believes the Scanlons have made false accusations against her and Ivey actively campaigned against her in a previous election.
Months after the trio met in a coffee shop, Lenahan — Blasingame’s “best friend,” or boyfriend, as he’s known in the community — sent threatening text messages to Bethany Scanlon strongly suggesting she remove a Facebook post that referenced her support for Henry in the November school board race.
Scanlon took down the post after Lenahan gave her a countdown and said he was going to release the audio from the coffee shop meeting and a second recording from a phone conversation with Blasingame. Text messages to Ivey also threatened that the audio recording from the coffee shop meeting would be released.
Lenahan told the Houston Press last week that he sent the texts because he wanted people to stop disparaging Blasingame, whom he referred to as “an amazing human being” and the “darling of the district.” He said Blasingame didn’t ask him to do it and can’t control him.
“I think sometimes she wishes I would shut up on social media,” Lenahan said with a laugh.
“You know what’s really disturbing? That all of these people care more about the secret recordings than why the recordings happened in the first place,” he added. By perpetuating “lies and false allegations” against Blasingame, “They’re the ones making it public, not us, which is why I gave them the chance to take that bullcrap down,” he added.
“The only reason Natalie hasn’t [fought] tooth and nail at this is because she didn’t want to drag the district through this,” Lenahan said. “She wanted to have a fair election, win or lose. Instead, they chose to reassert allegations that are known to be lies and false.”
Ivey told the Press that the audio recordings don’t incriminate anyone and he doesn’t care if they’re released. He added that Blasingame might have to answer some tough questions if she releases the recordings in full because of the language she used and the opinions she expressed. He said he didn’t want to be involved in the matter and resigned his position as a GOP precinct chair last week.
Ivey said Blasingame invited him to join her and Bethany Scanlon for coffee in mid-April to discuss her re-election campaign. Ivey, whose wife is a Cy-Fair teacher, has two children in the district and runs a conservative Facebook group. He said he’s open about his beliefs and isn’t concerned about anything he said during the meeting with Blasingame.
But the former precinct chair, who’s supporting Scott Henry in the November election, said it would be difficult for board members to continue functioning when trust is broken.
“You want harmony on the board,” he said. “You want a cohesive board that can work well with the administration. It’s disingenuous if you’re really trying to work together for the common good, which is for the students in Cy-Fair ISD. To have Natalie run in the same race as Scott … you have two incumbents running in the same exact same race against a well-qualified individual, Dr. Lane. The best outcome is that they’re going to split the vote. It’s almost like you don’t care about the good of the board.”
Several Cy-Fair parents came forward last week and shared what they say are disturbing online interactions with an associate of CFISD board vice president Natalie Blasingame.
Screenshots
Cy-Fair ISD parent Kris Schweighardt said the problem many community members have with Blasingame is more about Lenahan’s threatening text messages and Facebook comments, not the recordings. Because of the contentious political climate, members of the public often record audio at candidate forums and public events to hold their officials accountable, she said. What they don’t do is threaten to release the tapes and “take people down.”
Schweighardt said Lenahan is a bully and acted like a bouncer at a Tea Party meeting held at a restaurant, telling people they couldn’t be there. She says he commented on one of her Facebook posts, “I don’t want to ruin you or destroy you.” She says she replied with the same phrase. That post may have been removed by an administrator or buried within one of the many Cy-Fair Facebook groups; the Press was unable to find it. Lenahan’s behavior has been reported to CFISD police, Schweighardt added.
Lenahan’s LinkedIn page says he’s a conceptual engineer, technology consultant, and founder of TYGGO Inc. A link to the TYGGO website is broken. The Facebook profile he frequently uses to engage with other CFISD parents, “Bam Lenahan,” lists his current city as Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, indicating that portions of his social media profiles may be fake or not updated.
Harris County Republican Party Election Judge Charlotte Lampe, who has grandchildren in the Cy-Fair district, said she’s been attacked by Lenahan on Facebook. She said it appears that Blasingame is providing information that Lenahan can use to try to blackmail people. “He told me he was going to release all kinds of stuff about me and my quote was, ‘Do it now.” I have nothing to hide. You go for it, dude,” she said.
“I just really feel like, if you vote for Natalie, you get this guy, and that gives me pause,” Lampe said. “For Natalie to act like she doesn’t know it’s happening, I find that hard to believe.”
It’s not lost on anyone that accusations are being hurled as an election looms in November. On the ballot are Terrance Edmond, Lesley Guilmart, and Radele Walker for Place 5; Blasingame, Henry, and Lane for Place 6; and Elecia Jones, Kendra Camarena, and George Edwards for Place 7.
The pro-public education slate is Guilmart, Lane, and Camarena. The GOP-endorsed candidates are Walker, Blasingame, and Edwards. That leaves Henry as an outlier, along with political newcomers Terrance Edmond, a CFISD graduate and small business owner, and Elecia Jones, an accountant. Henry has been endorsed by fellow board members Lucas Scanlon, Todd LeCompte, and Justin Ray.
Edmond announced in a statement over the weekend that he is suspending his campaign and supporting Radele Walker for Place 5.
Cy-Fair parent Bryan James Henry, who is not related to Scott Henry and founded the nonprofit Cypress Families for Public Schools, said in a blog post that he has concerns about Walker and Edwards “hitching their wagons” to Blasingame’s slate while she has served as a “constant source of distraction and extremism” during her four years on the board.
Bryan Henry called attention to text messages from Lenahan to Bethany Scanlon, published in the Press last week in which Lenahan cautions Bethany Scanlon to be aware of “not just the legal ramifications but the social impact that [conspiring to take down Blasingame] will have on you, your child and your husband.”
“George Edwards and Radele Walker should seriously consider cutting ties with Blasingame, whose supposed boyfriend threatened a sitting trustee’s child (think about that),” Bryan Henry wrote. “Natalie Blasingame should resign and let Cy-Fair ISD get back to the business of serving students.”
Lampe said she didn’t realize until recently that so many people — Republicans, Democrats and those who haven’t publicly stated a party affiliation — have been subject to online bullying. The common denominator, she said, is that they’ve mentioned Blasingame in a less-than-flattering way.
“It’s very creepy,” Lampe said. “We’re seeing something, and we’re saying something. I’m surprised that Natalie has not disavowed this guy. That troubles me. Recordings are one thing, but then giving them to somebody to use as a leverage of ‘if you don’t do this, I’ll do that,’ shows complicity and I do not want that kind of individual on a school board with that much responsibility to our community.”
[ad_2]
April Towery
Source link
