The Mark Morris Tragedy Shouldn’t Be CCN’s Political Ammunition

 There is something that needs to be said about the latest round of commentary coming from Cowlitz County News regarding the Longview School Board and the sexual-assault allegations involving students at Mark Morris High School. This is a serious situation involving kids, and it deserves serious discussion, facts, documentation and accountability. What it does not deserve is to be turned into another Facebook political circus where suddenly everything is about “leftists,” Democrats and mysterious “spam bots.”

Let's start with the spam-bot claim, because that one deserves some scrutiny.

CCN is claiming that after posting about the potential recall of the Longview School Board, it was suddenly attacked by “spam bots.” According to CCN, it had to remove fake accounts, contact Meta and deal with reports that the post was “Fake News and Spam.”

Here's the problem: where is the evidence that they were spam bots?

CCN has shown no screenshots of these supposed bots. No list of accounts. No examples of the comments. Nothing showing that these were automated accounts rather than actual people who disagreed with what CCN posted. Being reported for spam is not proof that the people doing the reporting were spam bots. It isn't proof that they were Democrats. It isn't proof that they were supporters of the school board. It simply means somebody reported the post.

That brings me to something else that I find particularly interesting. CCN has become pretty notorious for collecting screenshots of people who disagree with them. If somebody makes a comment CCN doesn't like, there's a pretty good chance somebody is going to grab a screenshot of it. Comments, profiles, posts, conversations. Apparently nothing escapes the screenshot department.

So where are the screenshots of these supposed spam bots?

If they actually exist, show them.

That's what makes this claim so strange. CCN apparently has no problem producing screenshots when it wants to expose someone who disagrees with it, yet when it comes to proving the existence of an alleged army of spam bots, we're expected to simply take its word for it.

If screenshots are good enough to expose everyone else, they should be good enough to prove the spam bots existed.

Instead, the “spam bots” quickly became part of a much larger political narrative.

From Spam Bots to “Leftists”

The screenshots show that this isn't really about Facebook moderation. It's about politics.

Comments about “leftists” and people supposedly supporting the school board are being woven into the discussion, while CCN encourages people to share the post and identifies supposed political enemies.

This is where I have a real problem with the way this is being presented. The Mark Morris situation is being used to paint an entire political side as somehow being responsible for, or supportive of, what happened.

Let's be very clear about something: being a Democrat does not mean someone supports a sexual-assault cover-up. Being a member of Longview Resistance does not mean someone supports a sexual-assault cover-up. Disagreeing with CCN's interpretation of the school board's actions certainly doesn't mean someone supports a sexual-assault cover-up.

If someone has evidence that a specific person participated in a cover-up, then present that evidence. That's how this works.

Throwing the word “leftist” around doesn't magically turn an accusation into evidence.

Longview Resistance Was Talking About This

There is also a rather inconvenient piece of history that seems to be getting lost in all of this.

Longview Resistance was one of the local groups raising the alarm about what was happening at Mark Morris while much of the community was still ridiculing them for talking about it. They were instrumental in getting area news organizations to pay attention to what was happening.

Eventually, the story became impossible to ignore. Students came forward. Parents raised concerns. Law enforcement became involved. Arrests were made. The district came under intense scrutiny.

That doesn't mean every statement made on social media was necessarily correct. It doesn't mean everyone involved had every fact from the beginning. It does mean that people were trying to bring attention to a serious situation before there was widespread public recognition of what was happening.

Trying to rewrite that history by suggesting that the political left somehow didn't care about what happened at Mark Morris is dishonest.

If CCN has a legitimate criticism of Longview Resistance, make the criticism. Point to something specific. Show the evidence.

Don't simply call them “leftists” and insinuate that they support covering up sexual assault.

Then There Is Sean Turpin

This brings us to Sean Turpin.

Turpin isn't some random concerned citizen who happened to stumble into this controversy. He is a former Longview School Board candidate who ran for Position 1 in 2021 and lost to Don Cox. He is now heavily involved in the effort to recall the current school board.

Then there's Scott Beck.

Beck ran against Susan Donahue for Longview School Board Position 2 in 2025 and lost. Donahue received 58.14% of the vote to Beck's 41.63%.

Beck and Turpin have been closely aligned throughout this recall effort and have been publicly involved in criticizing the school board over the Mark Morris situation.

It looks like Sean Turpin and CCN are practicing a bit of virtue signaling. CCN used to do this all the time with Joel McEntire, but he had to cease and desist because the court ordered him to when they awarded a protection order to Britney Brown.

Again, that doesn't automatically make anything either man says wrong. It does mean people should know who is involved and what their history is.

Turpin previously wanted a seat on the school board. Beck just ran for a seat on the school board and lost to Susan Donahue. Now the two are working closely on an effort to recall the current board.

That's called context.

There's another piece of context involving Beck that I think deserves attention. Scott Beck is heavily involved with Father's House Church in Longview.

Being involved with a church doesn't make somebody a Christian nationalist. I want to make that distinction very clear. People have every right to practice their religion and participate in the political process.

At the same time, I have become increasingly concerned that we may be seeing the beginnings of a Christian nationalist political agenda taking shape in Longview, much like what has been documented in Battle Ground, Washington, and Moscow, Idaho.

I am not saying that has been proven in Longview. I'm saying the signs are there, and I think people need to pay attention.

Battle Ground has seen the development of a movement described as “Christian localism,” involving religious, business and political figures becoming increasingly involved in the direction of the community. Reporting has also documented connections between some of those people and the Christian nationalist movement centered around Moscow, Idaho.

Moscow is an even more obvious example. Pastor Doug Wilson has openly discussed Christian nationalism and has described Moscow as a “working prototype” of what a Christian nationalist society could look like.

I'm not saying Longview is Moscow. I'm not saying Longview is Battle Ground. I'm not saying Scott Beck is a Christian nationalist simply because of his church involvement.

I am saying that when you start seeing religious networks, political organizing, former candidates for public office and efforts to gain influence over public institutions appearing in the same circles, it is reasonable to start asking questions.

Maybe there is nothing more to it. Maybe there is.

I'd rather ask the questions now than look around five years from now and wonder why nobody bothered to pay attention.

Religion isn't the problem. Political power organized around a particular religious ideology is a different matter.

That deserves scrutiny.

Let's Get Back to What Actually Matters

The public deserves answers about what happened at Mark Morris. Who knew? When did they know? What were they legally required to do? What did they actually do? When was law enforcement contacted? Were mandatory reporting requirements followed? Were students protected? What did district employees know? What did the school board know?

Those are the questions that matter.

Those questions can be answered with documents, police records, investigative reports, testimony and other evidence. They don't need political labels attached to them.

They don't need Democrats turned into villains.

They don't need Longview Resistance turned into some sort of boogeyman.

They don't need an imaginary army of “spam bots.”

They certainly don't need people with political interests in the outcome presenting themselves as nothing more than neutral observers.

For a very long time, Joel McEntire’s attacks on Britney Brown provided CCN with the kind of engagement numbers that keep a local political operation humming. Now that a court has awarded Brown an anti-harassment order, that particular source of engagement appears to have dried up. Rather than letting the story die, CCN now seems determined to manufacture a new narrative out of thin air, dragging a sexual assault into the political arena and wrapping it in a bizarre conspiracy theory in what looks like a desperate attempt to reclaim those clicks, comments and attention. Turning someone’s trauma into political ammunition and clout-chasing content is more than irresponsible. It is absolutely disgusting.

I have no problem with holding the Longview School Board accountable. If the board failed in its responsibilities, the public deserves to know. If district employees failed in their responsibilities, the public deserves to know. If laws were broken, the legal system should deal with that.

What I have a problem with is taking a horrific situation involving students and turning it into political ammunition.

If CCN has evidence, publish it.

If Sean Turpin has evidence, publish it.

If Scott Beck has evidence, publish it.

If anyone else has evidence that a specific person participated in wrongdoing, publish it.

What happened at Mark Morris deserves an investigation. It doesn't deserve a political rewrite.

The students involved deserve answers, accountability and the truth.

They don't deserve to become ammunition in somebody else's political campaign.