DOWN THE DRAIN

NJ School Board Member Who Made Homophobic Comments Resigns After Mid-Zoom Bathroom Visit

About 150 people were on the Zoom call when Frances Cogelja made her unfortunate journey.

A New Jersey school board member who once called a proposed curriculum about LGBTQ+ history “repugnant” has resigned after accidentally broadcasting her bathroom trip during a public board meeting on Zoom. About 150 people, including students and teachers, were on the Hackensack School Board’s call when Frances Cogelja decided to take her laptop to the bathroom Monday night, according to the Hackensack Daily Voice. “You need to go. We’re here trying to get work done while you’re sitting on the toilet,” board vice president Scott James-Vickery told Cogelja, per the Voice. The board said it received her resignation on Tuesday. Last year, after New Jersey passed a law mandating LGBTQ+ history be taught in schools, Cogelja wrote: “Everywhere I turn, this alternative lifestyle narrative is being shoved done [sic] our children’s throats.”