Lena Kotler-Wallace wasn't planning to interject during a recent school board meeting in Decatur, Georgia — it "truly was a spontaneous emotional expression."
The mother of three was forcibly removed from a City Schools of Decatur Board of Education meeting on Tuesday after voicing her opposition to changes to the district's diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. Video of the event showing police officers' aggressive behavior towards her has since gone viral online, sparking outrage both at home and away.
"I have been through worse. There are people who go through worse every single day," Kotler-Wallace tells The Advocate. "It was still a traumatic experience."
Kotler-Wallace has lived in the school district for 13 years with her husband and three kids. Their oldest son is 17 and autistic, their middle child is a 10-year-old transgender girl, and their youngest, who is nonbinary, is about to turn seven. The mother attended the April 15 meeting intending to speak out against the reversal of policies that protected all of her children.
The board was determining whether to rescind the district's equity policy, which promised to “provide an inclusive and emotionally supportive environment, free from discrimination," as well as its “Theory of Action,” which stated that “all learning environments must be inclusive, safe, secure, and supportive while also ensuring that no student group is marginalized."
The board also considered alterations to three other policies to remove words such as “equity” or “ADA" — the federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 that prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities. The proposed changes came in response to Donald Trump's executive orders targeting LGBTQ+ people and DEI.
It only took Kotler-Wallace saying one word out of turn to spark what would happen next. In the heat of the moment, Kotler-Wallace called the board "cowards" — something she now says "was not at all planned, it just came out of me."
"They were talking about how their morals aren't aligned with this decision, but they have this fiduciary responsibility. And it felt so wrong and so hypocritical," she explains. "These are policies that directly affect my children and the children of everyone in this community."
Kotler-Wallace's single word was picked up by the recording of the meeting, but she maintains "I didn't actually shout. I grew up as a theater kid and my voice naturally projects." Still, Board Chair Carmen Sulton deemed it disruptive enough to ask her to leave, and subsequently called the police when she refused, leading to the interaction captured on camera. The Advocate has reached out to Sulton and City Schools of Decatur Board of Education for comment.
The mother was soon after surrounded by four police officers who forcefully grabbed her and carried her out of the building as she told them "I'm practicing my rights as a parent. I'm in no way resisting," adding, "This is what fascists do." While she may have seemed composed in the moment, Kotler-Wallace now says that "there was no part of me internally that was calm — it was complete survival mode."
"I want people to know that there are times in life where even when you're scared, you have to understand that these are moments where we have to decide who we are and who we want to be," she says. "And you have to just make that choice and then do it, even though you're scared."
Kotler-Wallace says she was then brought outside, where she still refused to "stand up on my own," telling the officers, "I wasn't participating in my removal." She "was so shaken and upset, all I could do was sit there" for around two hours while the officers stayed to observe her, one of whom "stayed in his car watching me until I left."
Kotler-Wallace was left with "a bruise, but no injuries." Despite the traumatic nature of the night, she still feels lucky that the outcome wasn't worse.
"Especially after they called the police, I understood that things are different than they were four months ago," she says. "I thought about that woman up north [in Idaho] who got zip tied and hauled out. I got home and read about everything that was happening at the Marjorie Taylor Greene town hall, where they were tasing people and charging them with felonies. That makes it scarier."
Even scarier, Kotler-Wallace's 10-year-old had planned to attend the meeting with her mother, as they had both signed up to speak during the public comment period. Her daughter became "nervous" as they were about to leave, and Kotler-Wallace's husband agreed to bring her later.
"My husband was actually preparing to bring the kids over when I was able to get a text message to him that just said, 'Please don't come. I think I'm being arrested,'" she says.
Kotler-Wallace was not charged with a crime, and to her knowledge, has not been barred from attending future meetings. The parents still had to have a difficult conversation with their three children explaining what had happened when she returned from the meeting, after which the kids "hugged me and they told me how proud they were of me."
The mother still feels the "frustration" she felt at the meeting that sparked her outburst, a feeling that's stemmed from "years of having to fight and advocate for my children to be safe." Kotler-Wallace says that she and her husband evaluate on a "weekly basis" whether or not it's safe for their children to remain in school, and if they need to homeschool them instead. Other families of LGBTQ+ and disabled students that she knows are "already making the decision to pull their kids out because they don't feel safe."
"I am absolutely terrified. And the other families that also have queer children are scared," she says. "We think about Nex Benedict a lot — what happened to that poor child ... I don't know how to make sure my child never goes through that."
The City Schools of Decatur Board of Education ultimately voted to repeal its equity policies. However, Kotler-Wallace isn't done — she says "I very much plan to continue attending [board meetings] until I am told I am not welcome anymore. And then I'll sit outside."
"My job as their mom is to help them become their best selves and help them to be people who live their truth joyfully. I view that as, it's my job to try and get as many obstacles out of the way for them to do that," Kotler-Wallace says. "I've told them several times this week that they matter and they are important and they are worth fighting for. And even when it's scary, I am going to get up every single day and I am going to fight for them and for their friends and for all of the kids like them."
