The 7 people who were initially charged after confronting Bellwood-Antis School Board members in February regarding disgraced former Wrestling Coach Ryan Blazier, have all seen their charges dropped.
Tensions continue to run high in the Blair County community, and one parent says proceedings went as expected for the group.
“We are happy we are just we’re fine with it because we knew it was going to happen. We knew that the charges wouldn’t stand.”
But Rochelle Simpson says they have no intentions of lightening up.
“We’re not gonna stop bringing the pressure. I think it’s extremely important to understand the reasoning why, like what our motives are I would say. We are not out to get anybody’s job, we’re not out to not let the judicial system not to go forth with it what it needs to, we just wanna hold everybody accountable for their actions and get them away from our kids until things are figured out.”
Still, the District Superintendent says those parents are barred from school grounds for the time being.
“The no-trespass Order is still in full-force and effect. There are special circumstances that if they have children at school that they need to come pick up, they do have that opportunity to come in, or to be with their children in case of an emergency. However, for them to participate in a board meeting, we are still working through that with our solicitor but they are still not permitted on school property until June 30th.”
But after the following meeting was cancelled, he says things are back on track but they’re prepared if things get rowdy again.
“Provided that we have people who exercise good decorum, we will maintain that but the moment that things get a little out of hand, then the board will reconsider how those meetings are.
We will continue to have security officers present and we’ll have law enforcement nearby if so needed.”
Which Simpson says is unnecessary.
“It made it look like we are just these violent people and there’s nothing violent about us. Like, the only thing that happened was a door was pushed too hard, and so whenever people are saying like ‘there was like all this damage to the school’ like you’re thinking of like Washington DC all the riots that’s what people are thinking and that’s not at all what happened.”
