Local school boards are increasingly becoming hotbeds of political division. One Central Ohio district is seeing that play out as one school board candidate’s sign was defaced with a swastika.
It happened in the Big Walnut school district in Sunbury, where the sign of candidate Zach Duffey was vandalized with a large red swastika. “It's really just a disgusting symbol of hate,” said Brandon Hoge, a fellow board candidate. Hoge and Duffey are running for two seats on the board, currently held by Stephen Fujii and Todd Smith.“The fact that somebody would come in with a more conservative viewpoint it's a threat to them,” Hoge said.
Fujii wrote on his campaign page on Facebook, “What has happened to a candidate’s banner in the Big Walnut Local School community is deplorable. It is completely unacceptable” He further wrote, “”I spoke clearly in the last two weeks about the fact that it is okay to ‘disagree with someone’s ideas but NOT okay to disrespect the person.’ We must be better than this.”“He wrote a great message,” he said. “I think he's coming at it from the right angle. His response was appropriate.
The Delaware County Sheriff’s Office was called to investigate, but at this point there are no suspects.