They were even yelling at people who were waving their hands in Sign Language, so it wasn’t the noise, or the interruption, or the delays that were the issue, they simply didn’t want the audience to show support for each other, which is insidious.

When I was in high school, the School Board did something unfair to the band, so all the musicians showed up to multiple school board meetings to try to change their mind, and we were treated worse than disrespectfully each time, for daring to care about school policy that directly affected US.

At the last meeting we attended, I pointed to each member of the Board, and told them that we would replace them in the next election, except for one, who had two kids in Band, and was on our side.

We didn’t forget. When election season came, we spread across the city, and knocked on doors. There were are least 250 kids in band/orchestra/chorus, and every parent, and older sibling, relatives, etc. were on our side, and we could count on their votes. Beyond that, there were a LOT of residents that counted their band experiences as some of the best they had in school, and weren’t happy to hear about the band being screwed by the School Board.

Every single one of those disrespectful school board members was voted out by a wide margin, except our own guy, and everyone coming in had learned not to fuck with the band. We proved ourselves to be a powerful and effective voting block in that town.