(Red Oak, Iowa) – In a statement to area media this (Friday) afternoon, Red Oak mayoral candidate John Haidsaik withdrew his name from consideration for the Nov. 4th election. Haidsaik said that while it’s too late to take his name off of the ballot, he is “No longer running for the office of Mayor in Red Oak,” and added his apology for what he “Said recently at the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council Conversation with The Candidates.” He said he “truly did not intend to offend anyone.”

Our story leading up to his decision follows….

The Red Oak Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council, a group of Red Oak High School students, hosted a conversation on Wednesday (Oct. 15th), with the mayoral and city council candidates, in advance of the November 4th City/School election. The event was held at the Red Oak Public Library, from 5-until 8-pm. None of the local media was invited to attend, or were in attendance. The forum included five young people, with their three advisors: Mayor Shawnna Silvius, Cynthia Bangston and David Dimmit.

Red Oak mayoral candidates present included John Haidsiak and Tim Fridolph. Red Oak City Council candidates included: Jeanice Lester and John Gross, running for the at-large position; Terry Koppa running for Ward 2, and Levi Franks, running for Ward 1. The youth had an opportunity to pose questions that each candidate could answer. One of the final questions was if they were elected how they would plan to deal with the poverty and drug use in the community.

In what appears to have been unedited audio of the entire event provided anonymously to the media, included answers to the question “What to do about drug abuse and mental health in Red Oak”. Mayoral candidate John Haidsiak responded “It’s a cruel fact, but people who’ve went through drug abuses, teenagers and young people, when they have children, they do two things. They get them involved, and they steal from ’em….”

Haidsaik compared the problem to a neighborhood full of rabid cats.

Haidsaik said “But, you know, it’s… People become little bit horrified when you talk about putting other people down. But life is life. You’re born, you’re gonna live, hopefully in a good way, then you’re gonna die. Nobody lives forever. The time of your death is… A lot of it’s predetermined by how you grow up and act in your younger years as to how good your older years are gonna be.”

He said that child “learns not to touch the stove because he knows it’ll burn his fingers. But if he’s never given that opportunity to learn, he never will. And after a certain amount of time, it, it’s too late to try to teach him because his mindset is already set. His vision is zeroed in on, uh, on what he wants to do, or what he thinks he’s going to do.”

Full audio of his response can be found here:

(A transcript of Haidsaik’s response to the question, What to do about mental health and drug abuse in Red Oak is as follows):

“It’s a cruel fact, but people who’ve went through drug abuses, teenagers and young people, when they have children, they do two things. They get them involved, and they steal from ’em. There’s… They’ve, they’ve got that habit so bad that that kid will go without before I go without. And it just escalates the problem to where there’s no reasonable fix-it solution other than mass extermination. I mean, you know, it’s…

If you’ve got a neighborhood full of rabid cats, you go out and shoot ’em, then you don’t have to worry about the rabid cats. But, you know, it’s… People become little bit horrified when you talk about putting other people down. But life is life. You’re born, you’re gonna live, hopefully in a good way, then you’re gonna die. Nobody lives forever. The time of your death is… A lot of it’s predetermined by how you grow up and act in your younger years as to how good your older years are gonna be.

So, you know, it’s… In a way, there’s a, there’s a cure, but, see, the cure just scares the living hell out of people. While they may agree with it, if you hand them a pencil and say, “Oh, no, no. Not me, not me,” I mean, they’ll, they’ll be for it until, until they got to be a part of it, and then it’s a different story. It… And it is a problem that’s handed down, because that child, when he’s young, has no idea or any conception of difference between right and wrong.

I mean, he learns by making mistakes. He learns not to touch the stove because he knows it’ll burn his fingers. But if he’s never given that opportunity to learn, he never will. And after a certain amount of time, it, it’s too late to try to teach him because his mindset is already set. His vision is zeroed in on, uh, on what he wants to do, or what he thinks he’s going to do. So, in, in a lot of instances, it’s…

Sorry to say it, but it’s too late to do anything. You just have to try to deal with it the best you can.”)