Sunday, October 31, 2021

Loudoun County Sheriff says "No"

Read this article about the Loudoun County (Va.) Sheriff's Office, which looked carefully at the demands of the school district and then decided not to supply the manpower that was demanded.

The Loudoun County sheriff's office was asked for K-9 units, undercover deputies, a "five-person Quick Reaction Force", and a special ops unit. 

All this makes me wonder how much manpower Richland 2 asked the Richland County Sheriff's Department for, and for what reasons. There were four-five deputies inside, and there were reports of patrol cars moving outside R2i2. 

Richland 2 parents and community members certainly have not gathered in numbers anywhere closer to the numbers in Loudoun County, and public remarks have been relatively civil.

The same cannot be said for the arguing and bickering led by the board chair, Teresa Holmes, at several board meetings before the October 26th meeting. Somebody must have sat her down and made it plain to her that she should not continue to act as a dictator, bully or tyrant. 

Parents, community members and even some board members want to know how much "security" did cost the District on last Tuesday evening. 

If that cost isn't made public at the November 16th board meeting, then I'll file a FOIA request and post the response after I receive it. 

The public knows who the "Core Four" are - Holmes, McKie, Manning and Caution-Parker. 

Who (on the board) was it who tried to deflect the "Core Four" term to the four principles of something or other?

On behalf of the parents and community members at the October 26 board meeting, I say Thanks to Sheriff Lott for assigning deputies with good people skills. They understand what's going off at Richland 2 and that the upset, dissention, "noise" was all generated from the front of the room (i.e., by the board chair) on October 12 and at earlier meetings. 

When I was asked to step out of the meeting briefly on October 12th, after Holmes sicced "security" on me, Will Anderson told me he was trying to get things calmed down. I told Will that he had asked the wrong person to step out of the room with him. He needed to have asked Teresa Holmes to step out of the room and calm down. 

That, of course, was not going to happen, because Holmes acts like she is the superintendent's commander-in-chief. Anderson's boss is the superintendent. If Anderson had asked Holmes to step out of the room and calm down, Anderson would have been in the unemployment line the next day.