Kent Somers was the president of the NACS school board when in-person meetings were shut down by school resource officers due to safety concerns. While leading multiple meetings, Kent failed to protect NACS students, parents, teachers, and board members from sexual and verbal harassment by his supporters, who often shouted crude profanities in front of children. At the end of one meeting, some of his supporters chased NACS administrators through Carroll High School, forcing them and other board members to leave the building under protection of Allen County sheriff’s officers. Many of Kent’s supporters, including his wife Lisa Bobay-Somers, have been known to cyberbully NACS administrators and staff with fabricated and hateful comments on social media.

Kent’s wife Lisa Bobay-Somers called for parents in NACS to keep their kids home on count day so that the school district would lose $5 million dollars. This was both in the Journal Gazette and on Wane TV news. Kent never denounced what his wife requested. WANE TV article.

Kent Somers participated in an anti-public education training session hosted by Purple for Parents Indiana in March 2024. A photo of him was posted publicly on their Facebook page.

Kent Somers made a racist comment during a school board meeting in regards to a math textbook being deemed “inappropriate” by him because of a story problem using an interracial marriage statistic in it. He also delayed approval of this book for that reason. WBOI article.

Kent Somers prevented NACS staff from attending a professional development conference about mental health because he did not personally agree with one of the guest speakers who would be there. That speaker is a national renowned speaker famous for being an anti-racist.

Kent Somers filed to run non-partisan but added the word conservative to his campaign signs. His views align with extremists, though, not moderate or traditional conservatives. He previously shared content on his Facebook page about attending the extremist Tea Party group events.

Kent Somers is endorsed by the Indiana Family Action PAC which is the political action committee for the Indiana Family Institute, which is a group focused on creating policy that centers on conservative issues like religious liberty and pro-life policies, according to their website.

Kent Somers has served on the NACS school board for three terms. However, during his tenure as president of the board, NACS had made headlines many times for all the wrong reasons. He has not shown the strong leadership, collaborative skills to address educational gaps, or commitment to improving our schools that our NACS community deserves. He has consistently failed to manage school board meetings, failed to support and protect NACS students, families, teachers and administrators, and failed to prioritize the best interests of all stakeholders in his decisions.