Sezin Palmer is an unsuitable candidate to represent District 4 on the Board of Education in Howard County. This is a multi-part series discussing the reasons why. See Part 2 here.
I don’t know about you, but I had never heard of Sezin Palmer until last fall, when she and many other Howard County residents had a collective aneurysm over the idea of redistricting to better integrate our schools by socioeconomic status.
The first time I saw her name was shortly after Howard County Public School System Superintendent Michael Martirano released his 2019 redistricting proposal, when Ms. Palmer fired off an angry letter to the editor of the Baltimore Sun. Disgust oozed from her denunciation of the Superintendent’s plan as “reckless” and “reminiscent of the busing of children that occurred half a century ago.” The injustice that raised her ire was the superintendent’s proposal to redistrict her River Hill home from affluent Clarksville Middle School to majority-black Harper’s Choice Middle School, increasing her child’s commute by two miles.
As opponents to redistricting gathered to commiserate via the public Facebook group HoCo Neighbors United, I recognized Ms. Palmer’s name as a frequent poster and commenter who proudly broadcasted her Libertarian, far-right-leaning tendencies. Her tone was often rancorous and bitter as she scoffed at “socialism” and “left wing nuts” and decried segregation and racism as “fake issues.” Whether she was mocking the concept of equity, impugning the notion of white privilege, or patronizing people of color, her commentary laid bare her arrogance and sense of white superiority. From my perch as a fly on the HCNU wall, I came to perceive Ms. Palmer as one of the more caustic opponents to redistricting.
Imagine my whiskey-tango-foxtrot moment when I saw Ms. Palmer announce her candidacy for Board of Education in District 4. This woman has no business being on the BOE, I thought to myself. And she wants to represent District 4? The same District 4 that encompasses Wilde Lake and Harper’s Choice villages, whose schools and residents were rudely denigrated by her pals during redistricting?
No. Just… no.
Since announcing her candidacy, Ms. Palmer has done a stellar job of raising money and perfecting her smoke-and-mirrors persona as a non-partisan, hardworking executive who will save us all from rampant politics on the BOE so that every child in HCPSS will receive an excellent education. Except that’s not who she is. Her right-wing beliefs and hubris did not just disappear; she simply learned how to hide them behind equanimity and corporate buzz-speak. She is smart enough to recognize that District 4 is more than just her cheerleaders in River Hill, Clarksville, and Maple Lawn; it is also Wilde Lake and Harper’s Choice, two villages whose schools have been disdained and rejected over multiple rounds of redistricting in recent years.
Make no mistake: Ms. Palmer is a single-issue candidate, focused entirely on the evils of redistricting. Her vituperations from last fall, as well as her platform’s lack of substance on any other topic, are clear evidence of that. Forget about educational equity. Her focus is on maintaining a status quo of “good” schools and “bad” schools, of concentrated poverty, of inequity.
Sezin Palmer may be hiding behind a mask these days, but I see her for what she is: a charlatan who is skilled at camouflaging her commitment to perpetuating educational redlining – a pay-to-play system of public schools that overwhelmingly favors the affluent such as herself.
Stay tuned for additional posts on Sezin Palmer – including screenshots – coming soon.