Open Letter to McMaster, Wilson and Spearman

                                                                An Open Letter

Dear Gov. McMaster, Attorney General Alan Wilson and Supt. Spearman,

I have contacted you previously on this matter, and I again ask your intervention to correct a serious illegal problem involving the Richland School District Two, Columbia, South Carolina.

Two woman, Teresa Holmes and Amelia McKie, have been usurping public office since November 13, 2018. The five legal members of the School Board refuse to do anything about it.

An oath of office was administered to them on November 13, 2018, one week after the general election. Neither was eligible to take the oath of office on that date, as neither had filed her Statement of Economic Interests with the South Carolina Ethics Commission.

Upon information and belief, the November 13, 2018 oath of office forms of Holmes and McKie were filed with the South Carolina Secretary of State. 

Holmes and McKie took the oath three weeks before they became eligible to do so; therefore, the District filed the notarized form fraudulently, and the Oath forms have no legal effect.

On December 4, 2018 Holmes and McKie filed their required Statements of Economic Interest with the South Carolina Ethics Commission. On December 4, 2018 they became eligible to take the oath of office.

Neither Holmes nor McKie has taken the oath of office since December 4, 2018!

Therefore, they are usurping public office. They should be removed from office, and the District should recover all monies paid to them for salary, professional memberships, and travel expenses and other expenses.

The problem is more serious now, because on June 29, 2021 Holmes was elected as Board President and McKie was elected as Board Secretary. Because neither is a legal board member, neither can serve as a board officer. They must be removed immediately.

You may already know that McKie owes $57,100 to the South Carolina Ethics Commission. 

McKie represents Richland One and Richland Two as a Regional Director of the South Carolina School Boards Association. Because she is not a legal Richland Two board member, she cannot serve on the SCSBA Board. Yet she is allowed to.

Please take all available steps to correct this problem without further delay.

Teacher fired for personal opinions

Schaumburg (Ill.) teacher Jeanne Hedgepeth learned the hard way not to comment on her social-media page about the riots that followed George Floyd's death.

How many more teachers are worried that their employers will can them, if they speak out on their own time?

FoxNews reporter Charles Creitz ptrobably belongs over at CNN or MSNBC or ABC for describing Derek Chauvin as Floyd's "killer". And did you know, before that article, that Floyd was shot to death?

This, from the FoxNews article, "...property vandalized in response to the shooting death of George Floyd, a Black man from Minneapolis whose killer, Officer Derek Chauvin, was later convicted of murder."

I've been mistaken all this time, apparently, in thinking that Floyd's death had something to do with a police officer's knee on his back or shoulder. No doubt FoxNews will edit the article, but that's how it reads right now.

This nonsense by school boards must be stopped. Just consider the chilling effect on free speech that the school board's power to terminate 20 years of employment over a personal opinion or comment.

The riots that followed and follow Floyd's death were and are dangerous. Look at what has followed. In California thieves can brazenly enter a store and walk out with armloads of new clothing. Unchallenged. Why? Because a challenge might result in a riot!

How many teachers in Richland 2 School District are afraid to speak out against the riots following Floyd's death? How many will be accused of being racists, if they comment on anything that has to do with black crime or other dishonesty?

When you teachers take a good look at the composition of the Richland 2 School Board, you do have reason to fear. Right now the Board has two members (well, not really "members") and two board officers who aren't even legal board members. When the legal members won't do anything about it, they are as wrong as the two women who are usurping public office!

I remember the RCSD deputy sergeant who tried to sandbag me after Holmes accused me of harassing her in 2019. In an aggressive tone of voice, he said, "You just want those two women (Holmes and McKie) kicked off the board!"

I didn't take the bait. After a pause, I calmly said, "No, I just want them to take the oath of office legally." That was in 2019 - more than two years ago.