DRESSED IN A BLUE BLAZER AND khaki slacks, with sunglasses hanging from his button-down, Paul Gauthier approached the podium inside a conference center in Leander, a suburban community just northwest of Austin. A local conservative rabble-rouser with salt-and-pepper hair slicked back, he came to the September school board meeting to air his grievances.
“I have been trying to save this board for some time,” Gauthier said, speaking to the seven elected trustees. He then quoted the Bible: “I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers.”
Gloria Gonzales-Dholakia, a 49-year-old Latina who was elected to the board in 2018, figured she would have to cover 20 feet to escape through the back exit. “Who are they going to execute in this room?” she wondered, remembering that her three children were watching the meeting on livestream at home. “Where would I hide if someone pulled out a gun?” (Reached by phone, Gauthier said he didn’t intend to threaten anyone.)
Members of the Leander Independent School District are used to Gauthier’s incendiary rhetoric. Around Christmas, he showed up at a board meeting dressed as Santa Claus, chastising trustees for being “naughty.” He has complained about everything from the school’s overspending to mask mandates to library books, in one instance reading a passage from , a memoir written by a Black gay author. Gauthier would
