"I am pleading and requesting with you to please put a halt to any measures regarding the release of immigrants awaiting court dates, into the city of Del Rio and surrounding areas. If you do send these individuals into our community, we will be forced to make a decision to leave them without resources."
Lisa Brizendine, the president of the Oakley Union Elementary School board, resigned and apologized for her "callous and uncalled for" remarks during a meeting that board members thought was private, but was actually available to the public, KTVU reported Friday.
"I am raising a 10-year-old with special needs and having him home during this pandemic, while also holding down two jobs to support my family has been a huge stress," Brizendine said in a statement to KTVU. "I suffer with many of the same things that parents are going through from mental health issues to regression."
"My remark was callous and uncalled for and for that I am truly sorry," she added.
"I tendered my resignation because I don't want to be a part of something that would negatively impact my community. The students, staff and families deserve the very best, there is much work that needs to be done to reopen our schools safely and I will be praying that we as a community can move past this incident together and that our children always remain in focus."
As of Friday, Brizendine was no longer listed as a member of the board of trustees.
A Change.org petition was launched following the meeting, demanding that the board resign because of their behavior. More than 5,400 people signed the petition as of Friday afternoon, and the signature goal was pushed from 1,000 on Thursday to 7,500.
"They did not realize they were being broadcast and that the public could hear them," the petition said. "During that time board members decided to speak in a VERY disrespectful way about parents in the school district, including using profanity, speaking about parents using marijuana, and that parents just wanted their babysitters back."
Many of the commenters on the petition cited growing child suicide rates, depression and other mental health issues that have alarmed parents during virtual learning
Texas resident Ty Williams told a local ABC affiliate that while he typically pays a combined $660 each month for his home, guest house and office, he's been asked to shell out a shocking $17,000 this time around - and that's just for the first half of February.
"How in the world can anyone pay that? I mean you go from a couple hundred dollars a month... there's absolutely no way," Williams said, adding: "It makes no sense."Pretty much you are being held hostage and there isn't anything you can do about it.
Both Williams and Piece use power provider Griddy, which has come in for scathing criticism amid the price jumps. But the company has argued that PUCT's order is to blame for the surge, insisting it "changed the rules" and kept costs "300x higher than the normal wholesale price," even after the power grid regained sufficient capacity to return to normal levels. The explanation did little to quell critics, however.
While Griddy has kept mum about whether it would waive any of the price increases or offer some form of relief to customers, earlier this week it urged patrons to simply find another provider, with CEO Michael Fallquist saying: "We want what's right by our consumers, so we are encouraging them to leave.
"We made the unprecedented decision to tell our customers - whom we worked really hard to get - that they are better off in the near term with another provider," he continued.
Griddy and a handful of other providers use a business model that exposes customers to fluctuations in wholesale energy costs in real time, charging a monthly fee of $9.99 on top of the direct cost of electricity. While that approach has often saved patrons money, it did the opposite this week, sending bills to unprecedented highs.
Another Texas provider owned by the city government of San Antonio, CPS Energy, suggested its customers could arrange a payment plan over "10 years or longer" to make the massive bills "more affordable."
The offer was not received well, triggering threats of boycott and allegations of price gouging.
"Are you out of your minds? Those of us that had power AND STILL CONSERVED IT are getting rates jacked up?"wrote one irate resident. "I'm not paying 4x the amount I normally would, increased demand or not. Customers should NOT be eating the cost whatsoever."
Comment: It's unlikely this drop is due to the vaccines, because as manufacturers of the experimental mRNA vaccines have admitted, they do not stop people from contracting the virus: The Inanity of RNA Vaccines For COVID-19