On January 8th, 2018 the Vermilion Parish School Board, located in Louisiana held a board meeting to discuss a new contract for their superintendent Jerome Puyau. This contract included a $38,000 pay raise with rumors of a car as well. This raise would make Puyau’s total salary around $148,000 a year. Rene A. Rost Middle School English teacher, Deyshia Hargrave voiced her opinion regarding the raise, stating that all the teachers “work very hard with very little” to maintain their current salaries. In the school district teachers haven’t received a raise in a decade. Hargrave argued that although the raise was for reaching performance goals, teachers were the ones that were meeting those goals. After Hargrave voiced her initial opinion, a vote for the contract was called and Puyau received the raise. Disappointed with the outcome, Hargrave stated that it was unfair for him to take a raise when class sizes have increased and the teachers themselves have not received a raise for the added amount of students. When this was said, the president of the board claimed it was not on the agenda so they would have to proceed. Shortly after, an officer approaches Hargrave and instructs her to leave. At first, she is reluctant to leave but quickly complies. A commotion is heard from within the hallway and by the time the cameras catch up Hargrave is being pushed to the ground by the officer and arrested.
After the arrest the teacher was booked and although the superintendent called the police, telling them they didn’t want to press charges the police still booked her because they didn’t need the cooperation of the school system. On January 10, Hargrave released a youtube video responding to the arrest and the attention she was receiving because of it. In the video, Hargrave said that she was “appalled” by their attempts to silence her voice and take away her first amendment rights. Hargrave pleads with any viewer to speak out and not to let others intimidate them.
The superintendent also spoke out about the incident, claiming that he is to blame for the outcome of the events that took place at the meeting and he wished that it had gone better. Puyau clarified that nobody on the board had instructed the officer to get Hargrave out. He assured the public that Hargrave’s voice was heard and that the board would be having a meeting within a couple of months to discuss a raise for the teachers.
Students at Timber Creek have also voiced their opinions about the event. Junior Amanda Waskiewicz doesn’t think it was right for them to handcuff her, “They could have handled the situation better if they had wanted her to leave. However, it wasn’t right for them to silence her in the first place. She has the freedom to voice her opinions.” What do you think?
Link to the video of the board meeting: https://youtu.be/8sg8IY-leE8
