MENLO PARK — The Las Lomitas Elementary School District Governing Board is in disarray as it continues to face scrutiny over a racism scandal that forced the resignation of one trustee and has parents crying out to recall another.

Atherton mother Brianna Caldwell started a change.org petition asking parents to support a recall of trustee John Earnhardt for “failing to formally denounce racism present in Las Lomitas Board leadership.”

The call to oust Earnhardt comes in the wake of trustee Jon Venverloh’s resignation over racist and vulgar comments made by his wife Mehridith Philips Venverloh about Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

Venverloh, who was a former Google executive, announced he would resign in early November to focus on his family, while Earnhardt and other trustees condemned Philips Venverloh’s social media comments in a formal statement to the public, calling the derogatory racially-based and gender-based comments “abhorrent.”

But parents who have signed on to Caldwell’s petition don’t feel that Earnhardt’s comments go far enough, and they don’t think he’s genuine.

Unlike other trustees, Earnhardt has a target on his back because he made comments following the formal board statement that parents were not happy with, including those he made in the Palo Alto Daily Post on Nov. 8 that they felt appeared to brush off the situation.

Earnhardt said “Venverloh was a great colleague … very diligent as a board member and impactful for the district. The controversy moved quickly today because it spread through electronic media and parents this year are more engaged in the district than in the past.

Earnhardt continued saying that “before the pandemic, maybe eight to 15 people would attend school board meetings. But after the pandemic began, and the meetings moved to the Zoom platform, attendance exploded to 150 people or more. There has been an active, passionate, engaged parent community.”

In an interview, Caldwell said she was upset that Earnhardt did not explicitly condemn Philips Venverloh’s comments in the Daily Post and instead “used his privilege to defend Jon Venverloh, and trivialized the gravity of the trauma to our community by minimizing it as a social media controversy.”

She said she organized the petition because there is an underlying problem of racism at the Las Lomitas School District that needs to be addressed.

“Earnhardt has failed, even still, to individually and formally denounce what has transpired and racism in general despite his very active presence on social media, and used his privilege and voice to repeatedly defend Venverloh,” she said. “Systemic racism is exactly this. When we have all white, and mostly white male board members — exercising their power in positions of leadership — it is crucial that they are actively anti-racist and have the training and education that is required to represent, advocate for, and make responsible decisions for a multicultural institution.”

Earnhardt could not be reached for comment on the petition but said in the Nov. 8 statement on the district website that he and his fellow trustees are “deeply saddened that this happened and are committed to take action to address the harm done to our community.”