MARLBORO - In the midst of a five hour plus meeting last week, board member Danielle Bellomo was moved to comment.

"Have a little dignity. ... And when my breasts are the topic of discussion in a group chat, (ThisBitchNeedsToDie) I don't have a safe environment."

This was not some sort of macabre theater production. It was a meeting of the Board of Education in this Monmouth County town of about 41,000.

School board meetings have become political free-for-alls for the past few years - all part of the "culture wars" over books and curriculum in general.

What just unfolded here, however, pushes those divisions to vile, if not terrifying, ends.

At issue is a publicized group chat on social media reportedly involving five men, including Chad Hyett, the board vice president, and another man who is the husband of board member Aditi Gandhi.

Besides the reference to her death, the chat also included comments about Bellomo's body that resembled  what you may hear from drunken college students.

The immediate reaction was that two candidates, including a man reportedly involved in the chat, resigned as board candidates in the Nov. 4 election, (Their names will still appear on the ballot).

The discussion targeted Bellomo, a Donald Trump-supporting conservative, who comes across as a consequential political figure in town.

She won election to the board last November, getting about 2,000 more votes than anybody else. Last June, she bucked the Monmouth County Republican organization by challenging the incumbent county clerk. She was unsuccessful. There also has been some "chatter" on trying to recall her as a board member.

The first board meeting in the wake of this social media episode was last Tuesday night.

Charles Bellomo, husband of the board member, spoke and summed things up by saying people had called for his wife to die.

"Let that sink in," he said.

Besides general disgust at the social media posts, board member Bellomo and others called on the district to take steps to protect her at meetings and other district events.

Brian Cohen, the board president, did not respond to those comments at the meeting..

This, unfortunately, is how many school board meetings are conducted these days. Board members listen to residents, but do not engage. How does this serve the public?

It doesn't.

Eventually, the board went into closed session and presented a statement.

It condemned offensive text messages and said every board member should feel safe.

There was more.

Bellomo's allies on the board - of which there were two - argued for the removal of Cohen as president and Hyett as vice president. The board attorney said a vote on such a motion would be inappropriate.

Eventually, as the meeting pushed past midnight, there was a vote to remove Hyett as VP. It failed.

There was also a proposal to authorize a board investigation of the social media chat, but that was withdrawn. There is reportedly a police investigation ongoing.

So when the meeting broke up, there was an unsettling status quo.

Social media posts wishing for the death of a board member - not to mention the vile sexual comments - were essentially left as is by the board.

It's all business as usual, one presumes.