School board chair sparks outrage by suggesting some students are too stupid to pump her gas

A school board chair in Florida sparked outrage after she made belittling remarks about high school students - suggesting that some are too stupid to pump her gas.

Jessie Thompson, 36, who represents District 3, was named as the new board chair member of Volusia County just last month.

But she has already found herself in hot water after a video surfaced of her making derogatory remarks about students and board members during a Moms for Liberty Summit in August, The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported.

While discussing the 'low standards' for Florida schools during the summit, Thompson expressed shock over the 100 percent graduation rate for one high school in particular.

'Now, I've walked that school multiple times. I've met some bright students, and I've met some students that I wouldn't trust filling up my tank of gas,' she said.

'So, I find it really hard to believe that they graduated, and graduation is now turned into basically just handing out participation ribbons.' 

Despite leaving out the name of the school, Santiago Avila Jr., the Deltona Mayor, said she was referring to Deltona High School, Fox 35 Orlando reported.

'The kids in Deltona High School, they worked their tails off, and not only them, but so did the teachers. So did staff. So did the parents, to make it an A-rated school,' Avila said.

'For her to come in and belittle that and make it seem like we're handing out participation trophies, she doesn't even represent our district, so for her to use one of my schools specifically... it was out of bad taste, and she shouldn't be representing us in any capacity.' 

Thompson responded in part through an email to WESH, where she stated that Avila is allowed to be offended - because so is she.

'I'm offended that our communities haven't built a culture that cherishes and uplifts learning for the sake of being better, more intelligent people,' she wrote.

'Instead, we have a culture of adults spending their days on TikTok and being offended by harsh realities.' 

During the same summit, Thompson discussed how 'super liberal school board members', including Ruben Colón, the District 5 representative, respond to public comments from 'liberal wackadoodles', The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported.

'We have a tan gentleman who just, like, gets all puffy,' she said.

'He gets filled with pride because he is supported, and then encourages him to do some more crazy nonsense.' 

Avila expressed his anger towards the seemingly personal remark and said: 'She called them the essentially the token tan man. What was the need for that? You know, again, we're supposed to be coming together, and she's just being disparaging'.

Thompson attempted to explain her comment in the email, where she said: 'Some are offended because I've pointed out that a tan guy is tan. And that some of our graduates aren't up to an acceptable standard of intelligence'.

'Yet they're not offended that year after year kids are struggling to learn to read. And they're not offended that prisons base the number of beds they need on 3rd grade reading scores.'

Thompson also admitted to feeding board members false information - confessing that she personally provided other board members with fake data to get certain board items passed.

'Trust me, I've done it to a couple people,' she said. 'That's how I got some safety and security things passed.'

'I knew the other board members didn't read long contracts, so I worked with our sheriff's department to get something put into that contract, and then they voted to pass it without reading it through. They still don't know what's in there.' 

Her comments prompted Avila to publicly urge for her removal as chair in a Facebook post on Monday - leading to a meeting with the board on Tuesday evening where they unanimously decided to reconsider who will serve the position. 

It was only during Tuesday's meeting - which was Thompson's first meeting in her new role - that she publicly apologized for her words.

Colón - who initially made the motion to name Thompson as chair and the motion to reconsider the decision - was the first board member to address the situation, which he referred to as an 'elephant in the room'. 

'Those words were very hurtful. Not because of me. We're big people, we can handle it. We're politicians. People say whatever they want to say. We get used to that,' he said.

'But when it affects our kids - when comments are made to disparage our children - that crosses over into a different world.'

He noted the 'privilege' in selecting an individual for the role, adding that the chosen person represents the entire board and holds the same amount of power as the rest.

Community members also spoke out against Thompson, with Dana McCool, a former Deltona City Commissioner, noting that she's not 'professionally fit to represent these beautiful, hard-working souls'.

Avila also addressed Thompson during the meeting where he said: 'You're very fast at wanting to take a selfie at their graduation, and you're very quick about the photo ops when it came time to hand out these quote unquote, what she called, "participation trophies"'.

'And now you're going to sit there and trash that,' he added. 'No, it's unacceptable.'

Thompson ended up apologizing for her comments, more specifically for those in reference to the students.

'I chose those words poorly,' she said. 'I do sincerely believe that all of our students deserve the best education, every single one.'

She apologized to the board for the sadness and anger her words caused, noting how it was a 'growing moment' for her.

'It's going to take time, but moving forward, I think that we will be a stronger, better board, and I will always be focused on putting our students first and making sure that they get the best possible education because they really are the reason that I'm here,' she said.

She also added how she'd like to visit every school in the district as part of her apology.

Members agreed to move the Election of Chair to the Volusia County School Board to January 14 agenda for further discussion.