“A Hackensack School Board member who made national headlines by opposing a LGBTC curriculum has resigned after an embarrassing incident during a Zoom meeting. Frances Cogelja didn’t realize she’d left her laptop camera on when she took it with her while going to the bathroom during the public comments section of a board meeting Monday night. Nearly 150 participants, including students, apparently saw Cogelja relieve herself” reports the Daily Voice.

“No one immediately said anything when she returned from her trip to the toilet. A short time later, Vice President Scott James-Vickery reportedly told Cogelja: ‘You need to go. We’re here trying to get work done while you’re sitting on the toilet.’ BOE Pres Lancelot Powell later said that Cogelja couldn’t be removed because she was an elected official. ‘We can’t make her resign,’ he reportedly said. ‘None of us can kick off a board member,’ he said. Early Tuesday afternoon, the board announced that the trustees ‘have received a letter of resignation from Mrs. Frances Cogelja, effective November 24, 2020.’ The remaining trustees must fill the vacancy within 65 days – or by Jan. 29, 2021 – under state law. Cogelja made headlines – and drew widespread condemnation – last year when she called new state laws that require teaching about LGBTQ history ‘repugnant.’ ‘I have every right as a parent to not have my child participate in something that I do not think is suitable as part of a public school curriculum,’ she said at the time. ‘I believe conversations having to do with sexuality should be had at home between parents and their children.'”