Meeting on Keller ISD split was closed because of death threats, district says
Death threats were behind the decision to cancel the livestream of a February meeting on a proposal to split Keller ISD in two, according to a district spokesperson.
Interim Superintendent Cory Wilson made the call “out of concern for the privacy and safety of attendees,” district spokesperson Bryce Nieman said in an emailed statement Monday.
“Unfortunately, the board received death threats, and participants faced online harassment and personal attacks due to their involvement,” he said. “To ensure a safe and open environment for thoughtful discussion, the meeting was not open to the public or recorded.”
While there have been instances of trustees being doxxed — having their personal information like addresses posted online — neither the district nor the Keller Police Department records of any of them receiving death threats.
Nieman shared five screenshots of the doxxing posts that had included trustee’s personal information, but none included language that could be described as death threats.
One of the screenshots was of a comment reading, “once I find out where the Board members live, it’s over fr,” but it was not clear that the poster was referring to the Keller school board members. The screenshot was shared by an anonymous poster on the Keller ISD Parents Unite Facebook page on Feb. 2, and attributed to a student in the district, but it likewise showed no evident connection to Keller school board members.
A supporter of the split who refused to identify himself at the Jan. 30 school board meeting told a Star-Telegram reporter that board President Charles Randklev had received death threats.
The following day, the Star-Telegram filed an open records request for communications received by the board members that contained death threats, but the district had no responsive records.
“The Trustees have not had any death threats communicated directly to them in the time period since December 19, 2024,” the district’s public records office replied.
Deputy Chief Jared Lamoine of the Keller Police Department told the Star-Telegram that the department had received complaints of doxing of trustees online. The posts encouraged others to show up at trustees’ residences and “share their input directly,” but did not include threats of violence, Lamoine said.
The Keller Police Department referred the complaints to the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office, but there was not enough evidence to prosecute or obtain additional warrants, Lamoine said.
The District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
For Laney Hawes, a parent of four Keller ISD students and co-founder of the nonprofit advocacy group Keller ISD Families For Public Education, the allegations of death threats were more “excuses” from the board to avoid transparency.
“We’re tired of being lied to,” she said in a text message, arguing that an online meeting would have been safer than concentrating community members in the Keller Education Center. “We’re exhausted. And we just want respect and transparency from our elected officials. But all they do is hide, avoid, and lie.”
She and other opponents of the split told trustees at a Jan. 16 school board meeting to “stop the secrecy” in the process and be more transparent.
Trustees Joni Shaw Smith and Chelsea Kelly, the only board members who have openly opposed the split, said they were “blindsided” by the idea when it was first discussed during an executive session at the Dec. 19 board meeting.
First Amendment lawyers told the Star-Telegram in January that the board’s closed-door discussion of the split that day likely violated the Texas Open Meetings Act.
The possible violation inspired a Keller ISD parent to file a lawsuit against the trustees in January. Represented by the law firm Kelly Hart & Hartman, a North Fort Worth homeowners association joined that lawsuit earlier this month.
