BOE candidate Philip Jones should apologize

Mr. Jones, a candidate for the Bridgewater Board of Education, should apologize for false accusation and refrain from partisan political thinking.

I feel compelled to post a summary of some Facebook posts by BOE candidate Mr Jones. I was shocked to see BOE candidate Mr Jones' false accusation on Facebook about Jeremy Li and William Atkins. As a candidate seeking election into the leadership role as BOE member, Jones’ action is mean and wrong.

BOE candidates Jeremy Li and William Atkins, who correctly filed their campaign finance reports according to law, were falsely accused by Mr Jones of missing financial reporting. Without knowing the facts, Jones was quick to bring on a public attack, on his Facebook page and a Facebook group with thousands of members. These false accusations had the effect of spreading rumors. After being given the facts, he quietly deleted the post some time later, but thousands of people might have seen the misinformation he posted.

In addition, the post revealed Jones’ partisan political prejudice: he wrote that the two candidates are “hand-picked” by “the ruling party”, with “politicians pulling their strings”. BOE is a volunteer position. These two candidates have selflessly stepped up to serve and give back to the community they grew up in and the schools they went through. Anyone looking at the issues would easily be able to decide to support them. Under the prejudice and imagination of a conspiracy, however, Jones dismissed the good will and actual education issues, but instead focused on current party politics, evident by his repeated referencing of party and politician, and attacked them. Is he going to bring this type of personal and partisan politics into the board of education?

It was also revealed that Jones’ election signs were priced significantly higher than the typical market. The reason Jones gave was” because relationships matter more than just about everything”. I hope that our BOE members make financial decisions based on the quality of the service provided and not personal relationships.

We need our school board members to be kind, supportive, not beholden to any special interest group, fair to all, and financially responsible. Mean and baseless attacks are not acts of kindness. I call on Mr Jones to formally apologize and mitigate the impact of his attack in public places where his damages were inflicted.

Good luck to all candidates. Everyone, please go vote.

The Facebook posts referenced are shown below in screenshots: