At an August 29 meeting of the Roselle Park Board of Education, Roselle Park Mayor and Democratic congressional candidate Joe Signorello was confronted by James O’Keefe, a far-right activist who founded the “guerrilla journalist” organization Project Veritas.
On Sunday, O’Keefe – a Bergen County resident who became notorious for his selectively edited, sometimes-illegal hidden camera recordings of liberal politicians and organizations – posted a heavily edited video of his interactions with Signorello to social media, where it has gotten several million views. It was the second time this summer that O’Keefe targeted a New Jersey school board, following an incident at the Livingston Board of Education earlier in August.
In the first section of the Roselle Park video, Signorello approaches O’Keefe and expresses his displeasure with O’Keefe’s presence, noting that O’Keefe doesn’t have any children in the Roselle Park school system.
“I don’t think you belong here, I’m gonna tell you that,” Signorello says.
Later in the video, Signorello accuses O’Keefe of bringing “undue chaos” to what is meant to be a peaceful, locally focused meeting.
“It’s my job to interact with the board, insofar as keeping kids safe,” Signorello says. “You are making people feel unsafe… You make children feel intimidated here, and it’s pathetic.”
The video ends with O’Keefe asking about a substitute teacher who was fired from the Roselle Park school district earlier this year; Signorello indicates he doesn’t know about the teacher in question and departs the interview.
Even with O’Keefe’s obvious editing, at no point does Signorello say anything clearly objectionable. But that hasn’t stopped Signorello’s social media from being inundated with angry comments; his campaign Twitter account’s most recent post has more than 400 replies focused on O’Keefe’s video.
Signorello told the New Jersey Globe that he had no intention of silencing conservative voices at the school board meeting, but that he wanted to put O’Keefe’s “hypocrisy” on display.
“The conservative movement constantly espouses states’ rights, local rights, and parents’ voices, but in Roselle Park, James’ group has tried to shove national politics into what should be a local school board just trying to do what’s right for kids,” Signorello said. “If you’ve got an issue with NJ’s curriculum, take it up in Trenton. Our Board of Ed is trying to fix real problems, not manufactured ones.”
So far, the video has only gotten exposure in conservative circles – but given that Signorello is locked in a competitive three-way Democratic primary for the 7th congressional district, he could use it to his advantage among Democratic voters and donors who detest O’Keefe.
Roselle Park wasn’t the only New Jersey town O’Keefe visited this summer to attempt to create controversy. On August 8, O’Keefe attended a meeting of the Livingston School Board, where he was asked by board members to stop recording the meeting; eventually, a Livingston police officer was called to the scene.
O’Keefe claims that the officer was called to the meeting by an attendee in order to silence him. The Livingston Police Department said in a statement posted to Facebook that their only intent “was to ensure the meeting remained peaceful.”
(O’Keefe also went after Gov. Phil Murphy’s re-election campaign in 2021, filming several of Murphy’s aides discussing vaccine policies in a parking garage.)
New Jersey’s school boards, and the state’s education policies more generally, have been the focus of debate for several years. State Republicans have attacked Democrats over “critical race theory,” sex education standards, and most recently parental notification policies for transgender students, battles that have frequently taken place at the school board level.
In most cases, those battles can play out in their local context among parents and local elected officials. But O’Keefe’s videos show that even in towns as small as Roselle Park, population 13,967, they can easily become viral videos and national talking points.
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