Penfield school board president Aaliyah El-Amin-Turner has dropped her bid for reelection, saying hostility from some district residents has taken a toll on her well-being.
“Throughout my time on the Board, I have worked to lead with integrity, transparency, compassion, and a commitment to doing what is legally, ethically, and morally right even when it was difficult, unpopular, or personally costly,” El-Amin-Turner wrote in a Facebook post May 14.
“Unfortunately, over time, the climate surrounding this work has become increasingly hostile, divisive, and harmful not only politically, but personally. Public service should never require someone to sacrifice their peace, dignity, safety, career, or wellbeing in order to participate. The level of hostility, misinformation, personal attacks, and dehumanizing rhetoric directed toward myself and others has taken a significant toll.”
El-Amin-Turner was one of four candidates up for two school board seats this year. She was first elected to the Penfield Board of Education in 2023 and was chosen to lead the panel last year.
Penfield school board meetings marked by tense encounters with parents
Tensions throughout the district are high. School officials and some residents have clashed repeatedly in recent years, mostly over rumors fueled by online discourse.
In early 2025, parents packed a school board meeting to discuss whether the district should remove an LBGTQ+ children’s book from school libraries. The meeting was quickly adjourned after some attendees began shouting over administrators who were trying to explain the process to challenge library selections. A white man dressed in a gorilla suit and a MAGA hat showed up; he later said the costume was meant to reference a rumor about school attire. Several district leaders, including El-Amin-Turner, are Black and called the behavior an act of racial intimidation.
At least two subsequent school board meetings were canceled over threats to school officials.
Later that year, parents again stormed a board meeting to demand information about a police investigation into threats made by a high school student. State police ruled the threat “not credible,” but did not release details about the investigation. Theories spread rapidly on social media, stoking fear and confusion among district families. When the school board ended a meeting without allowing parents to speak on the topic, some accused the district of not taking their concerns seriously.
In recent weeks, community Facebook pages have been filled with charged discourse around the role of school board members, the process of union endorsements and deep-dives into the background of several candidates.
Who is running for Penfield school board?
In other posts on her campaign page, El-Amin-Turner said she felt a shift in this year’s election from respectful disagreement and democratic engagement to aggressive criticism intended to shame or humiliate some candidates.
“Across this country, Black women in leadership are often held to impossible standards expected to lead, fix, absorb, remain composed, and stay silent while simultaneously being questioned, undermined, scrutinized, and attacked in ways others are not,” El-Amin-Turner wrote. “That reality has been impossible to ignore.”
She said she was ending her campaign to focus on her family, career and other ways she could make a positive impact.
Three school board candidates remain: Incumbent Krista Khan, Susan Kavanagh and Stacy Lonardo.
Voters will elect two members on Tuesday, May 19. The vote will take place between 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the Penfield High School gymnasium. You can learn more about each candidate here.
— Kayla Canne covers community safety for the Democrat and Chronicle with a focus on immigration, police accountability, government surveillance and how people are impacted by violence. Follow her on Instagram @bykaylacanne. Get in touch at kcanne@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Penfield school board candidate exits race over ‘hostile’ discourse
Reporting by Kayla Canne, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
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