House Speaker Suspends North Hampton State Rep From Ed Committee

NORTH HAMPTON, NH — A state representative, who went out an f-bomb tirade on social media attacking religious and private schools in New Hampshire has been temporarily suspended from the education committee she serves on. State Rep. Tamara Meyer Le, D-North Hampton, was given a three month suspension from her membership to the House Education Committee after a Facebook rant in which she attacked nonpublic schools in the state for not granting "rights" to students with individualized education programs and claiming that this was effectively discriminating against students with learning disabilities, like her own daughter. "F*** private and religious schools," she stated in the now deleted post from late-October.

Le also serves as assistant majority floor leader.

House Republicans condemned the comments and called for her to be removed from the committee. When she wasn't, Republicans submitted 600 petitions and House Speaker Stephen Shurtleff, D-Penacook, suspended her for three months.

House Republican Leader Dick Hinch, R-Merrimack, called the suspension unacceptable.

“I was shocked to read that the Speaker chose to take this relatively meaningless step to reprimand Rep. Le," he said. "The committee will have very few meetings over the next few months, which makes most of the suspension period moot. If he didn’t intend on putting her back on the committee, he would have made this permanent. That means she’ll be back on the committee in time for major policy debates, at which time anyone representing the interests of private or religious schools before the committee will have to consider whether or not they’ll get a fair review from a state representative who exhibited online rage towards their institutions.”

Hinch Wednesday called for Le, again, to be removed from the committee.

“As a graduate of a Catholic high school, I would expect (Shurtleff) to take personal offense to what she said," Hinch added. "I would also like to invite the speaker to communicate with my office so we don’t have to hear about these types of announcements by reading the news."

While not chiming in on whether or not Le should be removed from the committee. Frank Edelblut, the commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Education, said it was important to remember that for some Granite Staters, nonpublic schools were the best choice for their children and the schools played an invaluable role for some children.

"Across New Hampshire, dedicated educators in more than 130 non-public schools are teaching more than 16,000 students, from pre-school to post-graduate," he said. "Private schools such as Crotched Mountain Rehab Center in Greenfield, Learning Skills Academy in Rye, and the Spaulding Youth Center in Northfield are teaching more than 300 students with special needs. Just as with public schools, non-public schools are approved by the State Board of Education, and are reviewed by the State Board every five years."

Le has not responded to requests for comment about the situation.

Thursday, Shurtleff, however, chose to remove a Republican state representative from a committee after a comment he made on Facebook concerning the outgoing New Hampshire Fish & Game Commissioner – prompting Hinch to cry fowl.

In that case, state Rep. John Burt, R-Goffstown, a noted 2nd Amendment rights activist who has had a long-standing feud with Glenn Normandeau, who is being removed from the department after 12 years, wrote on Facebook on Oct. 11 that Normandeau was "a terrorist" who "lied to Governor Hassan, to the House Criminal Justice and House Fish and Game committees" and had done "damage … to our state."

Shurtleff removed Burt from the House Justice and Public Safety Committee due to the remark.

Hinch said the hypocrisy of suspending one person temporarily for an inappropriate comment on social media but banning another person outright for a lesser remark was a bad double standard.

“Rep. Burt had serious concerns about how the Fish and Game Department was being managed, and he has a right to express those views, which he did without the use of vulgarity," Hinch said. "For the speaker to not apply the same standard, or a higher standard, to members of his own team shows how partisan his administration has become. The speaker must be more worried about his reelection and backlash from the progressive wing of his caucus than he is about holding all members to equal standards."

An added issue, Hinch said, was that many anti-2nd Amendment advocates, some who were the Shurtleff's friends, were "busy filing several bills for next year that will be before the Criminal Justice committee, and I’m sure they take satisfaction in silencing a strong advocate from the committee."

Hinch added, "I’ve always known John to act in good faith in committee, and it’s unfortunate that they’ve tied his committee membership to opinions unrelated to the work and policy scope of his committee."

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