Teacher arrested after questioning school board about superintendent’s contract in Louisiana
January 10, 2018 by admin
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A teacher asking tough questions of school board members in the Vermilion Parish School District in Louisiana was escorted out of the meeting by a security officer and handcuffed on the floor and arrested, videos of the event show.
Deyshia Hargrave, an English language-arts teacher at Rene Rost Middle School, asked board members Monday night why they were planning to vote to give Superintendent Jerome Puyau a raise when teachers had not had a pay increase in years. The meeting and arrest were videotaped by a crew from KATC-TV, as well as by someone else who was present,
School Board President Anthony Fontana said in an interview that the security officer did nothing wrong. “He was just doing his job,” he said.
Other members of the board and Puyau did not respond to queries about the arrest. Hargrave was at Rene Rost teaching Tuesday, according to a school spokesman, but the school would say nothing else about the case. A spokesman for the local marshal’s office could not be reached for comment.
Hargrave waited to be called on to address the board. When she first spoke, she talked about why she did not want the board to give the superintendent a raise and said this about teachers in the parish, a unit of government similar to a county:
“We work very hard with very little to maintain the salaries that we have. And as I’ve been teaching the last few years I’ve seen class sizes grow enormously. . . . It’s a sad, sad day to be a teacher in Vermilion Parish.”
Her comments about the raise were ruled out of order by Fontana, who said Hargrave could not ask questions and expect answers during the public comment period. While some in the audience took issue with that, she sat down and the meeting went forward.
Hargrave was called upon a second time for comment. Again, she asked board members how they could raise the salary of the superintendent when teachers and students did the work in the classroom, again noting that educators were not getting pay increases.
Then, a security officer from the marshal’s office in Abbeville, Louisiana, walked up to Hargrave and asked her to leave repeatedly. They argued and at one point, the officer put his hand on Hargrave’s arm. She pulled back and soon left.
The video does not show what happened immediately after the two got into the hallway, but she can be seen on the floor, being handcuffed. She was then arrested. According to KATC, she was booked into the city jail on charges that included resisting an officer. She paid bond and left.
According to Fontana, Hargrave had violated rules of the meeting. He said she was arrested because she started a skirmish with the officer in the hallway. Fontana said he had left his seat and gone to the door after Hargrave was led out of the meeting and saw the start of the skirmish, which was not shown on any of the videos.
Puyau told KATC that the school district was not going to press charges against Hargrave and that he told police the same thing, but the teacher was booked anyway. She could be tried on the charges without the cooperation of the school board.
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Trump Administration Drops Florida From Offshore Drilling Plan
January 10, 2018 by admin
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But the move to lift the ban on drilling also put the Trump administration at odds with a number of coastal states. The governors of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, California, Oregon and Washington have all opposed offshore drilling plans.
“My top priority is to ensure that Florida’s natural resources are protected,” Governor Scott said last week.
Both of Florida’s senators, Marco Rubio, a Republican, and Bill Nelson, a Democrat, opposed the plan, along with 20 representatives from Florida’s 27-member congressional delegation.
Mr. Nelson criticized the move as political posturing, and said he did not believe Mr. Zinke would fully exempt Florida from the plan. Governor Scott is expected to challenge Mr. Nelson for his Senate seat in November.
“I have spent my entire life fighting to keep oil rigs away from our coasts,” Mr. Nelson said in a statement. “But now, suddenly, Secretary Zinke announces plans to drill off Florida’s coast and four days later agrees to ‘take Florida off the table’? I don’t believe it. This is a political stunt orchestrated by the Trump administration to help Rick Scott.”
Florida lawmakers of both parties have long opposed offshore drilling, saying it could harm the state’s tourism industry, which was hit hard after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico sent waves of oil to the state’s shores in 2010.
Environmental groups accused Mr. Zinke of currying political favor with Governor Scott while pushing ahead with opening up coastal waters elsewhere.
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“Such a quick reversal begs the question: Will the Trump administration give equal consideration to all the other coastal governors from both parties who overwhelmingly reject this radical offshore drilling plan?” said Diane Hoskins, a spokeswoman for the ocean conservation group Oceana.
In a post on Twitter addressed to Mr. Zinke, Xavier Becerra, California’s attorney general, demanded that drilling also be banned off his state’s shores.
.@SecretaryZinke: California is also “unique” our “coasts are heavily reliant on tourism as an economic driver.” Our “local and state voice” is firmly opposed to any and all offshore drilling.
If that’s your standard, we, too, should be removed from your list. Immediately. https://t.co/T6W6JaPCPh
—
Xavier Becerra (@AGBecerra)
Jan. 10, 2018
Interior officials had said they intended to hold nearly 50 lease sales between 2019 and 2024, including 19 off the coast of Alaska and 12 in the Gulf of Mexico. Seven areas offered for new drilling would be in Pacific waters off California, where drilling has been off limits for decades.
But finalizing the new plan could take as long as 18 months, experts said, and challenges are expected in the courts and in Congress.
The National Ocean Industries Association, which represents the offshore drilling industry, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The move to open America’s coastal waters to drilling is the latest in a series of efforts to reverse restrictions on energy production. The Interior Department has also repealed offshore drilling safety regulations that were put in place after the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
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