Leevy Johnson - a volunteer coach, not employee

It took three requests, but I finally got an answer from Richland 2 about whether Chris Leevy Johnson is a Richland 2 employee.

My first request was through the Let's Talk functionality to Ridge View High School. Ridge View did not respond.

My second request was made after I reported an unsatisfactory result from the Let's Talk program. A woman called from the District and said she'd get me the answer, but it didn't come.

An answer came quickly to my third request, in which I mentioned a FOIA Request would follow if I didn't get an answer.

This answer came:

"Mr. Johnson is a volunteer coach with the Ridge View High School football team. He is not an employee of Richland School District Two nor is Mr. Johnson a chaplain for RVHS or any school. For any adult associated with a team to lead students in prayer anywhere, it would be student-initiated, i.e. a student request for a person to lead a prayer, and anyone who would join in the prayer would do so of their own volition."

What prompted my inquiry? I think it was back in early June when Johnson posted on Facebook that he had started "his job" at Ridge View the day before.

Ridge View Football cheating scandal - your thoughts?

What are your thoughts about the football team cheating scandal at Ridge View High School.

The South Carolina High School League appellate panel determined yesterday that at least one player was not a RVHS resident. That was enough to cost the Blazers all their wins in the entire season.

The panel did not hear the other two players' residency questions.

Read Coach Rosefield's l-o-n-g message dated yesterday, after the SCHSL decision. You won't even know what happened, or why, if all you do is read his message.

Here are some of the questions I've been asked by the Richland 2 community?

Who is the District's unlicensed private investigator?

Who paid for them?

Who authorized having a district employee follow a student?

Have they done this before?

Are they following teachers?

Why wasn’t Davis at the meeting?

Why wasn’t the “investigator” at the meeting?

Who will be held responsible?  The Superintendent? The Asst. Superintendent Suber?  The principal?  The AD? The Coach?

Who is paying for all those lawyers?

Post your own additional questions below. Some of mine are:

- How long has Richland 2 Administration known about this?

- Is the "private investigator" actually an employee in the Safety/Security Department of Richland 2? 

- Where was the breakdown after a football star at a private school outside the District transfers to Ridge View in his senior year?

- Why were there rumors that Ridge View was "recruiting"?

- What did the superintendent know, and when did he know it? 

- Was information held back from the supt., so that he'd have plausible deniability?

And post answers below to any of these questions.

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.