Whenever a major issue is considered, plenty of people will make their opinions known and engage in conversations — most of which stay civil. Some less-than-civil interactions have made their way into the debate as to whether or not Orem should form its own school district or stay with the Alpine School District.

Orem Mayor Dave Young, who is directing the discussions at both the city council and the open house meetings, is concerned there is any behavior that would be demeaning to others who are allowed to speak their conscience and freely in the meetings.

“This is unfortunate and we are saddened to hear of this behavior. This is a very emotional issue and it’s important that we have a constructive dialogue,” Young said. “As I said multiple times during last week’s public hearing, all parties should be as respectful as possible in working to appreciate and understand the opinions and perspectives of everybody involved.”

During the July 12 city council meeting, Hannah Wold, an elementary school teacher in Orem and an Orem resident, voiced her desires during the open mic portion of the meeting.

“Alpine School District is good and gives opportunities to school teachers to go and learn about things to be an effective teacher,” Wold said. “We can’t guarantee these things will happen (in the Orem district).”

On July 14, Wold received an email from an anonymous account addressing not only her comments at the mic, but it delved into extremely personal information about her and her family.

The email read, “Hannah, Ms. Wold, Queen Wold, Mold Wench, whatever you want the peasants you speak to from social media to refer to you as, I’m extremely concerned over the erratic posts I’m seeing on your instagram as someone who also advocates for the community. S—– Loud-Mouth trailer trash is a dime a dozen, so I let it go, (because I too am one of those types,) but then as I continued to scroll I saw some majorly concerning and embellished story lines from your profile.”

The email continues, “Your fabricated post about pretending to support other teachers? Hannah, you don’t support anyone. Why post this? No one made you sit through that city council meeting. All the problems in the world, and you think you’re contributing by sitting in a city council meeting? Mama, let’s work on priorities centered in reality. For an educated woman, you’re wasting a lot of time and ignoring resources that would actually contribute.”

The email continues with foul language and privately directed commentary, before the sender signed off noting they live in the same neighborhood is Wold.

“I’m not even staying in my house this week because of it,” she said. Wold has reported the email to the Orem Police Department.

When it comes to having personal feelings about the district split Wold said, “I feel like teachers are being told we’re biased. Who better to know what’s best for students than those on the frontline. We should focus on helping students and employees.”

Wold received two more emails on July 16.

While personal attacks over the district split has not been an issue up until now, there are teachers who say they are being taunted for their opinions.

“Overall there has been a lot of support, but there are some individuals I choose to not respond to or try extra hard to downplay and be overly civil with. There are those who generally imply anyone who doesn’t agree with them is ignorant, fear-mongering, or in the district’s pocket, which is annoying to say the least,” a teacher at Orem Junior High School said in a text message to the Daily Herald. “One person tried to discount all teacher voices by saying we must be afraid of retaliation by the district — quite the opposite actually. The district is very hands off, has encouraged us to learn and do our civic duty, all while reminding us to not use school resources to push one side or another.”

“I am much more afraid of the small but vocal minority of parents and community members that are hypervigilant to catch teachers and twist what they say, vilify us and call for our heads,” the teacher wrote. “I worry a lot about saying something wrong, or making a slight misstep that will turn me into the poster child for everything wrong with education.”

Not all teachers are being “vilified.” An Orem High School teacher responded saying they have felt the process has been civil.

An Orem elementary teacher disagreed, writing, “I haven’t felt that. That said, I haven’t been necessarily active/vocal online to lead to said cyberbullying.”

There is one more public open house left before the Aug. 2 vote to put the issue on the ballot. That open house will be held at 7 p.m. on July 28 at the Orem Library Hall.

All of the open house meetings are tape recorded and can be found on the city’s YouTube channel or on the city website at http://orem.org/schooldistrictstudy. The videos are time stamped so individuals can look up exact answers to questions.

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