What Does the US Flag mean to you?

(Click  on the Watch on YouTube link.)

Today I received an email with this video in it. Master Sergeant Ray Benavidez delivers a great message.

Watch it and pass it on.

There are other videos on YouTube of Medal of Honor recipient, M/Sgt. Benavidez.

Integrity - hello, Ridge View?

“Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching." C. S. Lewis

Are there more than a few people at Ridge View High School who should have read C.S. Lewis, instead of playing video games or watching the sports channels?

One of the candidates in the school board race favors a return to a classical education. 

Vote for Eric Rovelli.

R2 Man of the Year - Matt Sherman

Photo Credit : MidlandsBiz.com

Matt Sherman, Principal of Blythewood High School, must have had something to do with the fiasco at Ridge View High School. Not to do with it, but knowledge or suspicion about it.

And instead of keeping quiet, as so many would have done, he spoke up.

And he'll pay the price for do so.

But he did the right thing, and he deserves to be backed up by parents, school board members, Richland 2 staff, teachers, coaches and students. 

Thanks, Matt. You are a Man of Integrity.

RVHS Loses Appeal

Did you watch that nonsense of the Ridge View H.S. appeal to the S.C. High School League?

Attorney Bakari Sellers of the Strom Law Firm blew all sorts of smoke at the hearing officials. Lots of distraction and deflection. But that's what lawyers do.

The only thing that matters is if the students did or did not become legal residents with the boundary of Ridge View High School.

It doesn't matter whether any of them is a good player and has a good future.

I wanted to scream at them to speak into the microphones. All of them. And Conlin's mother. Speak INTO the microphone! Even the hearing officers turned to the Ridge View staff and spoke to them, not into the microphones.

Finally one of the hearing officers asked why Richland 2 had not brought its own staff investigator with them to the hearing. Well, I could have answered that one. Because Ridge View didn't want him to testify!

The women from the school in the front row could not be heard.

I was on the phone with the League, asking again for a note to be given to the chairman to ask ALL to speak into microphones. While I was on the phone, they voted. I think they voted to uphold the suspension on the first player and disqualify Ridge View.

Then a hearing officer asked if they still needed to hear the next two appeals. They took a five-minute break and then went back into Executive Session.

When they returned, they voted not to hear the other two appeals. And that was that.

The Voice reports on McKie Ethics Comm. Hearing

Be sure to read the article on the online edition of The Voice of Blythewood & Fairfield County about Amelia McKie's October 20th hearing at the S.C. Ethics Commission. You'll find it here.

I've held off on details of McKie's testimony, because I could not hear her soft voice well in the hearing room, and the recording from the Ethics Commission was of poor quality.

Needless to say, I was shocked to read of her accusations as described in the article in The Voice.

I'll be finding out on Monday if the hearing was transcribed. If so, I'll go to the Ethics Commission and read it. 

According to the article in The Voice, McKie told the hearing commissioners that she attended a conference of the South Carolina School Boards Assn. at which she learned that the $9,600 annual stipend from Richland 2 was not " reportable income". She allowed as how she might have misunderstood. I laughed at that, because she had reported it in previous years' filings of her Statement of Economic Interests Reports. And it's my belief that Richland 2 issues a W-2 to trustees (and to trustees-elect, such as McKie). Of course, it's "income"!

Of most concern to me are her accusations that I've been harassing her. Now that is serious.

More on that after I read the transcript.

Ridge View Blazers - 3 ineligible players?

Read today's article in The State newspaper about the Ridge View H.S. football team and then ask yourself, "Am I more confused after reading it?

Here's the article by reporter Lou Beziak. Click here.

Did the Blazers play three ineligible players or not?

¶3 says "an investigation" revealed the team did play three ineligible players. The reporter didn't state whose investigation.

4¶ says Richland 2 submitted its own findings that three ineligible players played. Did Richland 2 self-report?

The issue is the lack of an official change-of-address. I had heard several months ago that there were players from another school in the District who were playing on the RVHS team. It wasn't important enough to me to follow up. I don't care about any sports - high school, college, or professional.

¶7 SCHSL Commissioner Singleton says RVHS claims there were bonafide address changes. But wait! Richland 2 says there weren't.

What's the famous movie line? "What we have here is a failure to communicate."

Strom Law Firm represents Ridge View High School. Wait! Not the District? How does a high school end up with a lawyer? Did the school board approve that?

Why is there an appeal if the District agrees that three players were not eligible?

Monday is a second appeal. When was the first appeal? How long has the ineligibility question been on the table?

Holmes misses last meeting of term

Why was Teresa Holmes missing from her seat at the board on Tuesday, October 25? What was the "family issue" that occasioned her absence?

Even though she has never taken the oath-of-office legitimately for her 2018-2022 term-of-office, she has been allowed to serve on the board. She remained a trustee-elect for the full term. 

I was never able to get a satisfactory answer from the Richland County Elections Commission about whether an office remains vacant until the elected person takes the oath-of-office legally. 

Earlier this year (January 1, 2022) Richland 2 shifted from the illegal "stipend" arrangement of compensation to the statutory per diem, and the board set the amount of the per diem for trustees at $384.00.

So, wherever she was and for whatever reason, Holmes earned 384.00 for Tuesday's meeting. At least, during this meeting that she attended by telephone, we didn't accidentally overhear side comments made to anyone in her company.

Perhaps board policy should be changed to require absent board members to attend via Zoom or Skype (or Livestream), so that the public can be sure they are giving their undivided attention to the business of the board.

Was the "family issue" excuse satisfactory to all? Are the other trustees entitled to know what the "family issue" was? Is the public entitled to know?

Why not?

That school board member was "on the move". Where was she?