Local activists campaign to have school board committee member removed over controversial Tweets

Tweets like the one above are causing some parents to worry that Naomi Narvaiz is not sincerely concerned for the mental health of their children. Photo taken from Naomi Narvaiz's public Twitter account.

Local nonprofit Mano Amiga is campaigning for the removal of Naomi Narvaiz from the School Health Advisory Council over some controversial social media posts.

The posts in question are all from Navaiz’ personal Twitter account and range from calls to have undocumented immigrants deported to retweets from the white supremacist group Patriot Front, formerly known as Vanguard America.

“The things that she’s saying just feel so extreme and so hateful,” said Karen Muñoz, co-founder of Mano Amiga. “She just openly attacks so many groups.”

Narvaiz claims that the only reason Mano Amiga is campaigning to have her removed from SHAC is because “they are targeting [opinions] that they disagree with”.

“I’m one of 23 members and yet I’m being singled out,” said Narvaiz, a proud Republican and Christian.

Mano Amiga formed in February 2017 to serve undocumented immigrants in the San Marcos area by providing education and outreach on immigrant rights. However, Mano Amiga says their campaign has nothing to do with the fact that Narvaiz holds conservative views.

“It isn’t about targeting her. It’s about keeping really extremist, hateful people off of advisory councils, especially in regards to student education,” Muñoz said. “We need to make sure our students are being served as best as possible and she’s not someone that’s fit to do that.”

Narvaiz said she had no idea she re-tweeted from a white-supremacist group but added that the only reason she did so is because she “just thought the map [Patriot Front] posted was interesting.”

She’s referring to a graphic about Columbus Day which featured a map of pre-civil war United States accompanied by the words “Conquered, not stolen”.

Texas passed legislature in 1995 requiring School Health Advisory Councils to ensure that the social values and interests of local communities were being upheld. SHACs are responsible for creating policies on how the district handles mental and physical health and creating curriculum for sex, physical and mental health education.

Narvaiz said the top three issues she would like to tackle while serving SHAC is cyber bullying, diabetes and mental health. Some community members expressed doubt Narvaiz is sincere about cyber bullying and mental health concerns because of certain social media posts they feel contradict her statement.

“If I’m a student at San Marcos High School and I go to her Twitter and I see these really intense things, am I going to feel supported if I’m a gay student? Or an undocumented immigrant?” Muñoz said.

Chris Hall, founder of the XYZ club for LGBTQ students at San Marcos High School, expresses his concerns about Naomi Narvaiz at a protest on Oct. 12. Photo: Elizabeth Parrish

Mano Amiga held a protest on the steps of the courthouse on Oct. 12 calling for Narvaiz’ removal from the council. Several community members spoke out against Narvaiz, including Chris Hall, founder of the XYZ club for LGBTQ students at San Marcos High School.

“I feel like a person who’s in a position that she has that comes with a lot of influence and power at the district level should be able to support the health and well-being of all of its students, not just the ones she deems acceptable and deserving of help,” said Hall.

Narvaiz was appointed to SHAC at the Sept. 18 SMCISD board meeting in a 4-2 vote. Apparently board members were aware of her social media posts at the time, some of whom did find the posts concerning. The SMCISD school board and SHAC members could not be reached for comment.

Narvaiz also serves on the ethics commission for San Marcos. Both positions are held in a volunteer capacity.

Ultimately, Narvaiz said, the issue is a matter of free speech.

“I’m concerned about what this will do to our community,” Narvaiz said. “Nobody wants to be a target and nobody wants to be involved with the community when people are attacked in this way.”

San Marcos CISD school board voted 4-2 that Naomi Narvaiz remain on the School Health Advisory Council at the Oct. 16 meeting.

At their next meeting which has not yet been scheduled, board members will discuss revising the vetting process for appointing SHAC members as well as adding an anti-hate speech clause in their policy.