The Philomath School Board unanimously agreed Monday evening to move forward with a formal hearing to address complaints filed against board chair Erin Gudge over her controversial social media post about the death of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.
During a brief 10-minute virtual meeting, the five-member board voted to formally accept all complaints filed to date and designated board vice chair Tom Klipfel with authority to schedule the hearing and establish the process rules. The step was necessary because Gudge, as board chair, is the subject of the complaints.
Gudge came under fire after posting on Facebook, “I will not mourn someone who spewed hatred in the face of grieving mothers the day their children were murdered. I will not mourn someone who would have preferred my own child not exist. I will not mourn someone who was teaching young people that empathy is weak and that civil rights should not be afforded to all. I feel deeply sad for his children. I do not mourn him.”
The post, which she later deleted, sparked public outcry during the Sept. 11 School Board meeting with three community members calling for her resignation.
When given the choice between an open or closed hearing, Gudge immediately opted for transparency.
“I want to hold this hearing in open session at the earliest possible date in order to ensure transparency into the process,” she said during Monday’s meeting.
The hearing will allow complainants to present their concerns, give Gudge an opportunity to respond and enable board members to ask questions before determining any next steps. Klipfel said the hearing would be scheduled for next week, with all five board members confirming their availability. The exact date and time will be set after consulting with complainants.
“We have a clear path forward,” Klipfel said, adding that he would communicate the next steps to complainants by Tuesday.
During the meeting, there was no mention about how many formal complaints that the school district had received.
Prior to the open meeting, board members met for 54 minutes in closed session under a state statute allowing them to consider information exempt from public inspection.
The controversy began after Gudge’s Facebook post about Kirk’s death, which led to what she described as “severe threats of violence and being doxxed repeatedly,” prompting her to deactivate all social media accounts. In an interview following the Sept. 11 meeting, she expressed regret for the post.
As elected officials rather than district employees, board members cannot be removed by the district or other board members. As Superintendent of Schools Susan Halliday noted in an email to parents, “community members who wish to pursue changes in board membership may do so through established democratic processes such as recall or election.”
Also at Monday’s meeting, the board announced changes to the district’s complaint form to better identify eligible complainants. Under board policy, only four groups can file formal complaints — district residents, parents or guardians of current students, district staff members and district students.
“Because we have received emails and even some attempted formal complaints that do not meet those criteria, we wanted to update the form,” Klipfel said.
The revised form now includes checkboxes for the four qualifying categories and adds a city of residence line for validation purposes.