Local school board election sees more than $200 in stolen and damaged property

Local elections are fast approaching and this has created a hostile environment for some neighbors. USD 450 Shawnee Heights School District has seen quite a lot of controversies with the running of school board candidates. Dads4Heights, a group made up of three dads running for school board in the district have seen themselves, and their supporters, become targets by politically-charged opponents, leading to more than $200 in stolen and damaged property for local supporters.

“It just proves to me that the left is the left,” Dwayne Smith, a Dads4Heights supporter, said. “This is for school board, and these people are literally insane…. They’re destroying democracy, as they call it, themselves, by destroying other people’s property. It’s criminal.”

Despite the repair, it didn’t last long as the American flag was found with slashes through it the next day.

An actual American flag was put up by the sign after this attack. However, the sign, nor the flag faired well with large holes being cut into the sign and the flag being stained green with a strange substance.

A wooden sign was put up next with an American flag hoisted on a wooden pole. Two trail cameras were also put up to try to catch the offender. The wooden sign was knocked down, the flag was ripped down, and one of the trail cameras, valued at around $200 including SD card, batteries, and its subscription was stolen, while the other trail camera ran out of space on the SD card before the offender arrived. However, one neighbor believes they spotted the offender, describing them as an apparent woman who was running toward the Kwik Shop on 45th St. and Topeka Blvd.

With the damaged and stolen signs, damaged flags, and stolen trail camera, it’s estimated that more than $200 of property has been damaged or stolen by opponents of Dads4Heights.

Now, a 4 by 8 wooden board, painted to promote all the candidates of Dads4Heights along with another wooden board specifically promoting Shore has been set up. A bucket has also been placed over the wooden pole where the American flag had been flying as well to remind people what had been taken, as many drivers knew about the flag. A new flag will eventually be placed out there as well.

The wooden signs were put up late Monday night, however, Smith is skeptical that the signs will remain untouched by Wednesday.

“I don’t think they’ve been touched because they haven’t had a chance to yet,” Smith said.

Shore has also made a statement regarding the situation.

“My biggest concern is not with it being my signs, but the fact that it is repeatedly being done on private property,” Shore told The Kansas Constitutional via email. “What has been done to the American flag is heartbreaking. It could just as easily be someone doing it out of disdain for the country as it could be someone doing it because of the election. Either way, the flag made it personal for several people including myself.”

Shore has had his yard signs taken on several occasions, including on the first day the signs were allowed to be put in public areas where he captured video of Jeffery Harrington, a supporter of an opposing school board candidate, stealing Shore’s signs. Harrington was also caught committing the same crime in a previous school board election.

The attack on people’s political signs is a regular occurrence in the area. During the 2022 Value Them Both Amendment vote, Shawnee County District Attorney Mike Kagay denounced damaging, destroying, and stealing signs. Kagay told The Kansas Constitutional via email that theft of any kind is a crime and that, depending on where it occurs, it should be reported to either Topeka Police Department or the Sheriff’s Office.

“We remain committed to enforcing the law, and to protecting the safety, rights and property of everyone in our community,” Kagay wrote in his email.

Shore is not the only dad in Dads4Heights to have his signs stolen, however. Michael Cichowicz has had his signs stolen, thrown into the street, and even covered with tarp.

“The actions of these individuals share a lack of accountability, destructive entitlement, and blatant disrespect to not only our voting process but to our country itself,” Cichowicz told The Kansas Constitutional in a statement. “It is a reminder of why I am running in the first place, and I believe our children need the opposite of these kinds of behaviors being modeled to them. We are incredibly lucky to live in a country that values individual freedoms, but destruction of property and election interference based on a personal opinion is a crime.”

Troy Showalter, the third and final candidate in Dads4Heights, has also had his share of signs being stolen and thrown in dumpsters.

“To my knowledge, neither Mike, Damon, or myself have ever been a candidate for any office before this school board election,” Showalter told The Kansas Constitutional in a statement. “I’m shocked that people would be emboldened enough to take property that doesn’t belong to them or destroy it via vandalism; particularly as it relates to the American flag. It never occurred to me that we would do this as a Shawnee Heights community. I think we’re better than this.”

Multiple mailboxes have also been knocked down—three in total as of Tuesday, October 3 in a span of only a couple of days. All mailboxes belonged to supporters of Dads4Heights, dawning their signs in their yards. Believing the first one was a probable accident, the two that followed—including one on a concrete pillar—is making the dads and supporters suspicious of a more malicious intent. It is important to remember that tearing down a mailbox is considered a federal crime.

A look on social media appears to show that opponents of Dads4Heights haven’t received such treatment as the supporters.

To learn more about Dads4Heights, you can go to their website dads4heights.com.

To register to vote in Kansas for the upcoming November 7 election, click here.

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