Teresa Holmes for Board Chair? Seriously?

At the November 17, 2020 special-called board meeting, trustee-elect Teresa Holmes threw her bonnet in the ring for future Board Chair.

Seriously? She is not even a legal board member. She is not a legal board Vice Chair (because she isn't a legal board member). And she brashly started her own campaign to lead Richland 2 School District's board.

Watch the beginning of this board meeting. Her pitch starts at 1:50 on the timer.

She claimed a "moment of privilege for just a second to say something".

Listen carefully. She wanted the public to understand that the person elected that night would only serve for the "next couple of months". She repeated that at least three times. Does she not know that there are seven full months until the next board election of officers?

I was reminded of what Ph.D. often stands for. Piling it Higher and Deeper. That she did.

She didn't need to say any of that. If she was nominated, she could have declined. And that would have been the end of it.

But she was giving a formal heads-up to The Squad that, come June 22, 2021, she expects to be selected as the board chair for 2021-2022. And don't get in the way of that gavel. y'all.

Notice the way she opened the meeting. She grabbed that gavel like she was the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Was it really necessary to rap the gavel five times to silence the multitudes?

The room was already silent. I don't recall any Board Chair ever having to demand the silence of the room. Others just gently started the meeting with calling the meeting to order.

Complacency or Complicity

How serious a matter is it for the Richland 2 Board of Trustees not to force Amelia McKie and Teresa Holmes to either step away from the board or to take the oath of office legally?

The only response I have received from the school district is that the Board cannot address the issue. That's the lie of the century.

If the five legal members of the board cannot address two women who have been usurping public office for TWO YEARS, what else can they do or not do?

When James Shadd did not attend his final board meeting on November 10, 2020 (reportedly due to self-quarantining after a family member's positive COVID test), the Board did NOT have a quorum. But it conducted business by erroneously counting trustees-elect McKie and Holmes as legitimate board members. Since they have never taken the oath of office legally, they are not board members.

The FBI and SLED have been asked to investigate why Richland School District Two has been paying out public monies illegally to trustees-elect McKie and Holmes. They are not entitled to receive monthly pay for attending board meetings, and they are not entitled to have association membership fees paid or be reimbursed for any expenses. The School District should stop paying them and bill them to recover the monies paid out illegally.

The S.C. Attorney General's Office has been asked again to charge McKie and Holmes with usurping public office.

SECTION 15-63-60. Action against usurpers, for forfeiture of office or against persons acting as corporation.

An action may be brought by the Attorney General in the name of the State upon his own information or upon the complaint of any private party or by a private party interested on leave granted by a circuit judge against the parties offending in the following cases:

(1) When any person shall usurp, intrude into, or unlawfully hold or exercise any public office, civil or military, or any franchise within this State or any office in a corporation, created by the authority of this State;

(2) When any public officer, civil or military, shall have done or suffered an act which, by the provisions of law, shall make a forfeiture of his office; or...

The immediate solution is simple. The oath of office should be administered to them, this time legally. They became eligible to take the oath of office on December 4, 2018, after the filed finally their Statements of Economic Interests (thanks to The Independent Voice of Blythewood & Fairfield County newspaper).

McKie and Holmes have never taken the oath of office for the 2018-2022 term legally.

SECTION 8-3-10. Oath and commission prerequisite to assumption of duties.

It shall be unlawful for any person to assume the duties of any public office until he has taken the oath provided by the Constitution and been regularly commissioned by the Governor.

It can be understood that this statute means "taken the oath" legally.

When the five legal trustees have knowledge of the illegal presence of McKie and Holmes on the Board, do they individually become complicit in the violation of state law? Do they condone the presence of McKie and Holmes on the board by not raising at every meeting that McKie and Holmes are illegally present at the board seats?

Even if the minority group of trustees cannot get a Motion passed to remove McKie and Holmes, they should try it at every meeting, so that there is an official record of their attempt.

The problem, of course, is getting it on the agenda at all. Board Chair Manning will be slow to act, and the superintendent doesn't want it on the agenda. But at every meeting a Trustee could request that it be added to the agenda for the next meeting. It'll be voted down by the majority, but it will be on the record.

And then the voters can decide at the November 2022 election how they feel about about the "majority" on the board.

Race and Richland 2

What is being taught about race in Richland 2? 

Check out this article by Dennis Prager. The title is What American Schools Should Teach About Race, Racism, and Slavery

Do you know what The 1619 Project is? Dennis Prager summarizes it as "that the United States was founded to preserve and protect slavery".

Have you looked at the book White Fragility? Don't waste your time buying it. I started reading it and quickly abandoned it. If you want to save your money and waste some time, the Richland Library system has both the e-book and audiobook. (Let me guess why...)

Is the District still buying and indoctrinating teachers with Gloria Boutte's "Culturally Relevant Pedagogy" training? I'm still laughing over former-Trustee James Shadd's defense of young, black men in classrooms who tend to "speak loudly". All I could think of at that board meeting was how a white teacher was supposed to respond, when some young, black man stood up in a classroom and spoke "loudly" and disrespectfully. At that meeting James Manning finally came to the rescue of white teachers before the discussion ended.

I don't care if the students (or teachers) are black, white, brown, yellow, red. There should be one expected decorum in the classroom. Period.

If you have any information that The 1619 Project is being taught in the classrooms of Richland 2, please let me know.

How long must I wait?

 At the October 13th school board, my emailed communication was read to the board. I wrote:

Members of the board,

I request a response from the District to my two questions.

To what extent is The 1619 Project being introduced, taught or discussed in any classrooms in the Richland 2 School District?

If it is not yet in the Richland 2 School District, will the School Board be consulted before it is taught?

I look forward to your response.

Today is November 21, 2020. I am guessing that I shall not be receiving a reply from the Richland 2 Board or the superintendent.

The Board may or may not be listening, when the question is asked. Their eyes may be open; their ears are in working order but may be tuned in elsewhere. And some of their minds? It's anyone's guess.

Here is why you will never receive an answer to any question asked of the board.

1. The Board does not discuss any comments or answer any questions at a board meeting.

2. The Board does not formally ask or direct the superintendent to respond to any comment or question from the audience.

3. The superintendent will not take it upon himself to answer any question or respond to a comment. He'll excuse his lack of response by saying that the board never told him to respond.

Where does this leave the member of the audience or of the public?

You can write directly to the superintendent; or

You can file a FOIA Request with the District. For information and the email address of the FOIA Officer, go to the District's website and search for "FOIA".

I recently did submit a FOIA Request to the FOIA Officer. My email was undeliverable. When I forwarded my returned email to R2 Public Affairs, I was informed that the FOIA Officer's name had changed. A few days later the name and email address were correctly shown on the District's website.

Then I suggested a better email address would be "FOIAOfficer@Richland2.org" 

Let's hope that the District preserved all of the emails sent to and from the previous email address. A better step would have been an auto-forwarding of the first email, with advice to the sender that the email address had changed.

Is this happening in Richland 2?

 Are girls in Richland 2 sports being beaten out by boys? 

Watch this video. Are transgender boys competing against girls in our school district?

If they aren't (yet), keep a close eye out and get organized now to prevent it from happening.

It's. Just. Wrong.

Abbott & Costello Routine - alive and well in Richland County

Depending on your age, you will be familiar with the old routine by Abbott & Costello, "Who's on First?"

I feel like I am on the field right here in Richland County. 

Somewhere, somebody knows the answer and is going to lead to the right office.

The Goal? Either get McKie and Holmes off the Richland 2 School Board or get them to take the oath of office and become legitimate members of the board.

Where have I been?

Richland School District TWO

Sheriff of Richland County

Solicitor of Richland County

S.C. Attorney General (AG)

Back to the Sheriff

Back to the AG

S.C. Department of Education

S.C. School Boards Association

SLED

FBI

Back to the AG's office

Back to SLED

Richland County Elections Commission

Richland County District 8 Rep. (Manning)

S.C. State Rep. Ivory Thigpen

S.C. State Senator Mia McLeod

The South Carolina Supreme Court would hear a case about usurping public office in a matter of days. The matter would go to the front of the docket. That's how important protecting public office is.

The AG should have taken my complaint and run with it. 

SECTION 15-63-60. Action against usurpers, for forfeiture of office or against persons acting as corporation.
An action may be brought by the Attorney General in the name of the State upon his own information or upon the complaint of any private party or by a private party interested on leave granted by a circuit judge against the parties offending in the following cases:
(1) When any person shall usurp, intrude into, or unlawfully hold or exercise any public office, civil or military, or any franchise within this State or any office in a corporation, created by the authority of this State;

Surely, I cannot be the only resident in Richland 2 who thinks the School District should follow the law.

Why won't the District and the Board require trustees-elect McKie and Holmes to take the oath of office legally?

Recover the Money!

On November 17, 2020 the board voted to approve Amelia McKie as its nominee for Region 8 Director to sit on the South Carolina School Boards Association. McKie was previously at the SCSBA without official designation or authorization and should not have been there.

She has already been inserting herself in the SCSBA - but not legitimately. Perhaps she should have devoted that "spare" time to a part-time job, so that she could make some payments on her $51,750 debt to the S.C. Ethics Commission.

Richland 2 should recover all public monies for her to participate in SCSBA functions. 

There are two trustees who pay attention to what the other five will call "the small stuff". 

The public should appreciate the close attention of Lindsay Agostini and Monica Elkins. They are the trustees to whom Lashonda McFadden should look for guidance, training, mentoring, advice.