Board arrests teacher

AMERICAN TEACHER ARRESTED AT
SCHOOL BOARD MEETING

THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD WATCHES

By Stephen Wilson

 

A teacher who has been asked to leave by

School board officials peacefully walks out

when a marshal {school resource officer}

approaches her. When she enters the corridor

the officer pushes her against the wall and

even shouts : " You are arrested for resisting

a police officer " . Her comments : " What are

you doing ? " Why are you pushing me ? " fall

on deaf ears as she is handcuffed and led

away to the local police station. Where did

this actually happen ? No, not in Russia or

Mexico but at a school Board meeting in

Vermilion, Louisiana on the morning of 9th

January. The case has made International

headlines due to social networks which allow

a recorded film of those very events to be

watched on U-Tube.

The American School Board and their officials

were accused of not only using : 'Excessive

force' but violating the teachers right to freely

express an opinion under the First Amendment

of the American Constitution. However, a

representative of the Board went so far as

to defend the action of the marshal on the

grounds that a certain amount of decorum has

to be observed and that it was the teacher who

was out of order and preventing discussion.

But if you watch this video attentively what

surprises me and perhaps many of my Russian

friends is how ' excessively polite ' the teacher

Deyshia Hargrave behaved by some Russian

standards. She never swore or loudly raised her

voice and calmly left the room when a marshal

asked her to go. Hargrave was detained but

finally released and the prosecution publically

declared they would not press charges. However,

the damage has been done . Now many people

can point to this incident and claim : " There is

no real freedom of Speech in America ! The

Americans are just a bunch of self-righteous

hypocrites when they are always lecturing

Russians about how they should maintain

freedom of speech. Put your own house in order".

When council officials were facing much stronger

language and abuse from local people opposed

to their renovation program, Russians did not call

the police and arrest people but tactfully tried to

calm down the crowd . They even made an effort

to listen to grievances. If you watch this video

what strikes you is how the school board makes

so little contact with the audience and just appear

to speak among themselves. It is as if they

follow the line : 'The officials must decide while

the teachers must remain silent '. Or rather :

'Cadres decide everything !'

What was Deyshia Hargrave protesting about ?

The main point of issue was whether a top school

official's pay be raised. The School Board voted

by 5 to 3 to increase Payau's pay from 110,130

dollars a year to around 140,000 dollars thus

representing a 30,000 increase . Payau argued

he deserved it because he had done a great

job, raised the rating performance of schools

worked hard and had not a raise for 5 years.

Deyshia Hargrave disagreed ! School class

numbers had risen from 20 to 29 a teacher

and conditions for both teachers and students

had worsened. In fact , teachers at Vermilion

earn an average of 47,522 a year and have not

had a raise for ten years.

Debbie Meaux , the president of Louisiana

Teachers Association stated : " I think it should

not have happened at an open public forum. We

expect to be able to speak and have our opinion

heard" . The local teachers at Hargrave's school

are shocked by recent events and feel as if it is

an assault upon all teachers. They back their

teacher 100 percent.

Rosemarie Faye stated : " The teacher did

nothing wrong and kept with protocol. She waited

to be addressed . She was acknowledged , and

then spoke in a respectful way and wasn't out of

order".

Deyshia Hargrave declared :"I'm appalled at

this and you should be too..... I'm hoping you

choose to speak out and don't let it become an

intimidation".