SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Feb. 15, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — The Utah State Board of Education Wednesday approved a resolution censuring board member Natalie Cline.
The action removes her from all committee assignments, bans her from placing items on board agendas or attending any board advisory committee meetings.
The resolution also asked her to resign from the board by Feb. 19.
The board’s resolution noted that the power to impeach or remove a board member resides with the Utah Legislature.
The board’s resolution came after a closed executive session Wednesday regarding Cline’s posts last week on Facebook claiming a female student athlete was male. Which lead to comments on her page the board found amounted to cyber bullying and worse. The Granite School District had to take measures to ensure the student’s safety.
“Whereas, Member Cline’s Facebook post created a substantial risk of harm in her communication to the public, the student, Utah State Board of Education (USBE) members, USBE staff, and herself,” reads the resolution. “… the post and negative comments resulted in harassment, intimidation, humiliation and unwarranted distress to one of the pictured students and her family members … and resulted in disruption to the operations of the high school identified in the post, the Granite School District and the USBE.”
Cline has posted commentary on her Facebook page the last two days claiming the board’s pending action amounted to election interference as she is on the ballot this fall, and noting she would not be attending Wednesday’s meeting. She also claimed the board has not provided her adequate due process to respond to the allegations of the board, only receiving the materials on the pending action Tuesday afternoon.
Cline did apologize and remove the offending posts but the board said she waited too long, 11 hours, to do so.
Her Facebook posts last week have since drawn an outpouring of condemnation from the Governor’s Office, members of the Legislature, the Murray City Council, the Millcreek City Council, the Salt Lake City Council, the Midvale City Council and the Granite School District, with more likely pending from the Canyons School District, the Jordan School District and the Murray School District.
