Keller ISD trustee's private meeting canceled, expresses concerns over 'trolls' and 'these people'

A private meeting scheduled by Keller ISD trustee Jo Lynn Haussmann for Monday, Aug. 24, to discuss the district’s LGBT protections has been canceled, according to a screenshot shared with the Voice.
The meeting, originally scheduled at 7 p.m. at the Spring Creek BBQ in Keller, was described as a private gathering to discuss the proposed policy changes protecting LGBT employees and students from harassment and discrimination. But corporate concern over consequences of the event prompted its cancellation, the source said.
The Voice has left a message with Spring Creek BBQ’s corporate communications office.
On Facebook, however, Haussmann was concerned about finding a safe space for opponents of the measure to meet. Ordinance proponents were everywhere, she suggested, and could crash the event.
“We have to find a venue. Do you have any suggestions? We can’t find anywhere. The ‘trolls’ are after us and I can’t jeopardize a restauror [sic] any business with the threat of these people. It would be horrible publicity,” she wrote.
Haussmann along with her fellow trustee Brad Schofield vocally opposed the propose policy change, which was on the agenda for the board’s regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday, Aug. 13. The trustees, however, decided to postpone the vote.
Both Haussmann and Schofield rallied opponents to speak out at the packed meeting even after the district announced the delay.
Among those who spoke out against the ordinance was Haussmann’s son, Ken Romines. According to a video, seen below beginning at 2:08, he identified himself as a gay man who had been in a relationship with a man for 23 years and had owned one of the “largest gay clubs” in Colorado.
Romines recently moved back from Colorado and currently lives with Haussmann, a first-term trustee who was censured by her board last year for making inflammatory statements about Muslims.
At the meeting, Romines criticized student Casey Akers for wanting to stage a “promposal” for her female friend who did not have a date despite it going against district policy.
“Now to the two girls sitting in the lunch room,” Romines said, pointing to the crowd, “you are already equal. There was no bullying, no history of you having any issues…you simply got busted for a rule you broke.”
Akers said her issue was, however, with two administrators who initially agreed to let her ask her friend to prom but retracted permission after discovering her date-to-be was female. Administrators told her it “wasn’t appropriate” for a girl to ask another girl, she told the Dallas Voice.
Back on the Facebook forum, concerned citizens shared ideas for host locations for the “private town hall”:
“I emailed the police dept. they have a meeting room. I asked how many people it would hold,” Keller resident Kristi Dierenfeldt Lisenbee suggested.
Another poster, Lindsay Dyer French, offered her home, adding it was a “troll-free zone.”
“How many expected?” asked Kristen Magnus. “Shady Oaks has a party room. But they also have an outdoor grass area with a little stage. Perhaps you can ask them. They have musicians outside occasionally.”
But Lisenbee suggested they call it off for now. School starts Monday, after all.
“No, go ahead cancel. We don’t have time to get everything together by [Monday] and…it’s the first day of school, so I bet everyones [sic]day will be crazy. After we determine if the location works for us we can submitt [sic] a form to ask for the space,” she wrote.
After all, it is about the kids.
Video: