School Board Candidate: Kenton Gartrell
Kenton Gartrell is a 30-year-old libertarian running for School Board Director position #1 under the Republican party. His stance and comments towards the vaccine and mask mandates are what made me so interested in him. The more I kept looking into who he was, the worse it got. While watching the “2021 Student Town Hall” meeting held on October 19, 2021, Gartrell made multiple comments towards the mandates in the district. At 128:23, Gartrell states, “those of us who are not at risk of it [covid] are probably putting other people at risk by evolving the virus through misuse of vaccines.” During an interview I had with him, I asked him to clarify what he meant by that. In response, he stated, “If we vaccinate everyone, especially those who are not at risk of having any problems more than driving a car down the street, we run the risk of evolving the virus even further.” Gartrell likes to bring up that his child has a greater chance of getting in a car accident than getting covid, yet car accidents aren’t contagious, and why do you think we wear seatbelts? He blames his opponents for “our beautiful way of life” being “attacked and threatened” because they also push for mandates. He told me that those who are not in at-risk categories shouldn’t be getting the vaccine. I feel this is a very ignorant statement because the more people who get vaccinated, the sooner we can get back to normal life.
Looking at his Facebook, you’ll see he likes to call teachers who enforce mask mandates child abusers. During the interview, I defined child abuse for him as any form of maltreatment by an adult, which is violent or threatening for the child. I then asked how mask mandates are equivalent to child abuse. His response was, “putting these masks… you’re disrupting their normal nature and their normal growth patterns….” By him saying this, he diminishes the harsh reality of child abuse and disregards the lifelong physical, mental, and emotional trauma that abuse leaves. It also dilutes the purpose of child-protection laws; while diverting children protection resources from legitimate reports of suspected child abuse, thereby endangering children.
A Facebook post from Gartrell had said he experienced racial profiling. When I asked him about this post, he explained that when he ran for city council two years ago, someone asked how a white man like him could represent Yakima. He told me that he could because he was considered a minority in Yakima when- Yakima County, as a whole, has anywhere from 50-66% white people. The point the woman made asking how he would be able to represent Yakima is very valid. Yakima School District is made up of nearly 80% Hispanic/Latino students, so how would he be able to represent them? He had told me he took offense to that because she didn’t say that based on his qualifications but solely on the fact that he was white. During the interview, he also said, “this district is kind of a little ghetto.” Now whether you agree with what he said or not, you shouldn’t publicly say that so confidently about the district you’re running for. Gartrell described the district as ghetto soon after talking about his experience with racial profiling.
On June 27, 2015, Gartrell got drunk with two other referees he worked with; at this time, he had been a referee for 12 years. After getting drunk, he messaged another referee, who was a 19-year-old female. He then invited her to the pool at the hotel he was staying at with the two other referees. While there, Gartrell made several offensive sexual statements to her, including comments about her breasts and insinuating she slept with another referee. She then filed a complaint against him, which concluded in a court hearing on September 26, 2015. On October 2, 2015, Kenton Gartrell was found guilty of violating the USSF policy about sexual misconduct, which led to him being suspended for six months.
A second harassment allegation towards Gartrell came out in 2019 after he found out he made it into the general election for the city council. Rosio Carrion posted a video on Facebook of Gartrell hitting her phone out of her hand while very drunk. She alleged that he had been harassing her and her friends all night and that he also mocked her undocumented status, saying she couldn’t vote and was insignificant. He then went on Facebook to say, “I have no knowledge in DACA; however, the harassment I endured by a DACA individual does create a bias for me.” If he did mock her immigrant and voting status, that is very pathetic: especially because his wife is a refugee.
The last thing I will point out about Gartrell is how he is very against critical race theory being taught. He has even gone so far as to call teachers who teach critical race theory Antifa on his Facebook. To be clear, critical race theory is not being taught in the Yakima School District. What he is referring to is something called equitable studies. Critical race theory is an academic framework that holds that racism is perpetuated by systems and policies rather than individual actions. Equitable studies are focused on providing resources to students to close persistent disparities along racial lines.