AUGUSTA — Residents angry about a variety of issues at a bizarre Augusta school board meeting Wednesday ate popcorn, held up signs demanding the board chairwoman resign, rolled around on the floor, threw accusations and uttered prayers.

And activists upset about the school system’s transgender student policy, about being cut off when they tried to voice their opinions previously, and about books featuring people who are gay being available to students at city schools took turns blasting the school board during a public comment portion of the meeting.

Timothy Bodnar, who said he lives in Augusta, and who has been outspoken at numerous school board meetings in Maine, said an anonymous email about him was why a recent school board meeting was canceled after school officials cited a “safety risk.” He said Superintendent Michael Tracy owed him an apology for not talking to him about that incident. He also criticized the schools for allowing the book “Prince and Knight” to be available to students, because it features main characters who are gay, which he said is not normal.

“You screwed up so bad that you turned it into theatrics and blamed it on us,” Bodnar said.

Fellow conservative activist Nicholas “Corn Pop” Blanchard ate popcorn for the three minutes he was allotted to address the board — he had brought several bags and offered some to other attendees — while he and Bodnar held up signs that read “Resign now Muffy,” in reference to Martha “Muffy” Witham, board chairwoman.

Bodnar, while Blanchard ate popcorn at the podium, also waved his sign back and forth and for several seconds rolled around on the floor, grunting.

Jan Rollins, a former school administrator in Augusta, rose to defend school officials, and decry the disruptive behavior at Wednesday’s and prior school board meetings by some members of the public.

“Their tactics are loud and calculated to wear us down,” Rollins said. “In this city, we do not make decisions based on who shouts the longest or loudest. Recent attempts to hijack meetings with misinformation don’t demonstrate strength, they reveal fear. Tonight I ask the Augusta school board to rise above the noise.”

Board members later tabled proposed changes to the district’s public participation policy.

The school board’s public comment policy was brought up for review after Blanchard sued the school board and Witham in federal court. Blanchard, who claims that the policy and Witham’s previous actions cutting him off while he was speaking at board meetings violated his First Amendment right to free speech.

Blanchard asked the courts to toss out the school board’s policy on public comment at meetings as an unconstitutional infringement on his rights to free speech.

Blanchard’s confrontations with school officials include an October 2025 Augusta Board of Education meeting at which three people partially undressed while Blanchard, who remained fully clothed, spoke out against transgender students being allowed to use locker rooms of their choosing.

Two Augusta police officers were on hand for the meeting Wednesday, although they did not intervene with any of the speakers.

Board member James Orr raised several issues when board members were given an opportunity to discuss items not on the agenda.

He, too, said books depicting gay relationships should be removed from Augusta’s schools. And he complained about seeing photographs on Facebook of a class being taught about the Muslim holiday of Ramadan. He said he hoped, come April, that same class would also be taught about Good Friday and Easter.

And he responded to a Feb. 27 letter to him from Witham, for allegedly violating the school board’s code of ethics.

In the letter, which Orr later shared on social media, Witham wrote Orr had made derogatory comments regarding the character and opinions of fellow board members; had following the vote on Title IX policies continued to actively oppose and undermine the decision in violation of the board’s ethics policy which states members must support decisions “gracefully” when made by a majority of the board; and that Orr had publicly criticized school employees instead of bringing his concerns about them to the superintendent.

Witham warned that further alleged violations by Orr could result in censure.

“We value your thoughts and your passion for sharing your opinions, but that passion must be channeled through the professional standards we all agreed to uphold,” Witham wrote . “As board members, we set the examples for the students and community for respectful discourse.”

Sidney resident Ronda Snyder, in what she described as a prayer, accused Witham of using her gavel as chairwoman to censor comments at board meetings and asked that Witham be granted the humility to admit she was wrong before ending up in court again. She also prayed for Orr, while Bodnar and Blanchard bowed their heads as she spoke, and asked that Witham and the board repent.

Orr wrote on his Facebook page that he planned to respond to Witham’s letter at Wednesday’s meeting. He said what Whitham cited him for were that he had spoken out against Witham for what he described as her violating the First Amendment in a public forum, and for him speaking out against the board’s vote regarding Title IX policies on gender discrimination.

He ran out of time — Witham said he was allotted 10 minutes — before he’d responded to the accusations in Witham’s letter, but he wrapped up by quoting a Bible verse, Matthew 18:6, which states if anyone who causes “little ones” to sin or stumble, “it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”