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LINK A teacher asked a great question about superintendent pay. Then, all hell broke loose.

JFC!!! I am so glad I moved far away from Louisiana. Dem folks cray cray down there.

A teacher asked a great question about superintendent pay. Then, all hell broke loose.

By Robbie Couch,

Why should a superintendent get a raise while teachers in the same district struggling to make ends meet see their paychecks flatline — year after year after year?
Teacher Deyshia Hargrave begged the question. Minutes later, she was handcuffed and placed in the backseat of a cop car.

The scene was captured below by YouTube user Chris Rosa , who attended a board meeting for Vermilion Parish Schools in Louisiana.

You can watch Hargrave begin speaking about 33 seconds in . The situation starts becoming contentious around 6:35 minutes . Hargrave is arrested at 8:35 , and then walked outside in handcuffs and placed in the back of police vehicle.

www.youtube.com

Vermilion Parish teacher gets arrested at Vermilion Parish school board meeting

Teacher Deyshia Hargrave was questioning the school board how they can vote to give the superintendent a raise when school employees have not gotten a raise ...

"We work very hard with very little to maintain the salaries that we have," Hargrave, who teaches middle school language arts, said during a public comment portion of the meeting, stating that she's seen classroom sizes balloon during her time at the school with no increased compensation. "We're meeting those goals, while someone in that position of leadership [the superintendent] is getting raise? It's a sad, sad day to be a teacher in Vermilion Parish."

According to comments Hargrave made to BuzzFeed News , she believes Superintendent Jerome Puyau was already making $110,000 before the board voted to give him a raise of $38,000. The raise alone is roughly the salary of "a teacher, or two cafeteria workers, or two janitors," Hargrave told the outlet.

After Hargrave spoke out again later in the meeting, a city marshal on duty asked her to leave — even though the school board was still addressing her.
"You're going to leave, or I'm going to remove you," the officer told her, as seen in the video. Many people in attendance seemed shocked. "Are you serious?" someone asked, aghast, in the crowd.

Hargrave leaves the room, followed by the officer. But moments later, someone chimed in, "he's putting her in handcuffs" — and the room erupts in disarray.

"I am not [resisting], you just pushed me to the floor!" Hargrave is heard screaming at the officer, as he forcibly removes her down the hallway and out the building in handcuffs. "Sir, hold on! I am way smaller than you!"

www.youtube.com

Teacher removed from Vermilion school board meeting in handcuffs

Teacher removed from Vermilion school board meeting in handcuffs
According to KATV News , Hargrave was booked in the city jail for resisting an officer — a fact that left many commenters online flabbergasted . School officials are reportedly not pressing charges. "Umm ... what charges could they possibly make?" one Redditor noted.

With help from the Reddit community, Rosa's video has gone viral, garnering more than 600,000 views in less than 24 hours. Clearly, Hargrave's earnest question about inequality in our education system — met with a grotesque abuse of power — has clearly touched a nerve with people across the country.

"I don't know how this teacher could have been more polite and patient in her earnest desire to find out why the superintendent deserves a raise while the teachers work harder with less," YouTube commenter Scott Wells chimed in . "She continued to press because they refused to come up with an answer. Seems like a good question to me."

We agree.

HippieChick58 9 Sep 2
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7 comments

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5

In the School District where I worked for 20 years, the Administration was oft regarded as "the dark side." Not for no reason.

1

Let me guess, the officer did not have a body-cam so there is no proof she resisted.

6

This is happening in the US, the land of the free but one would think that this is something that would be happening in a dictatorial country.

The Land of the Free - free to bully, to coerce, to abuse, to lie and to wrongfully arrest.

And while we are about it, free to claim alternative facts, to engage in racism, and to seek to impose on everybody the scourge of Christianity.

7

Being polite seems to only piss them off more! Hope she can find a good lawyer, cause if ever I saw a reason to go after someone this is it!
But then many things in that state are really very strange.imho

8

She needs to find herself a lawyer and sue for the illegal arrest and abuse, among other things.

8

Sounds about like Louisiana. I'm trying to get out of this state.

I lived in Rosepine, LA from May1983-Jan 1985. When I had opportunity to move back about 20ish years ago, with school aged kids, I said "Oh to the hell NO." And that is how I ended up in Omaha. I was there because my now ex was assigned to Ft. Polk. I learned enough about the state in the 18 months I was there to effectively keep me from ever going back.

@HippieChick58 military is how I ended up there too- my ex was stationed in the New Orleans area. My kids basically grew through their teen years here, so it became home to them, and I'm here because by grandkids are here

@JonnaBononna The things we do for our kids! For several years all my kids were within 20 miles of where I live. And then one moved closer which was really good. And then one moved to the Netherlands... and took her babies with her! The baby turned two a few months after they moved, and her first word was NEE! that is the Dutch word for NO! So, I got a passport, I'm learning Dutch, and I'm trying to save money for a trip to see them in the next year or so.

6

Seems the higher up in a system, one is, the more the unfairness to those below. We have three main islands in our county and there is a superintendent for each island. Lopez has one K-12 school and a tiny, one room school on another island, Decater. The other islands each have a school (albeit smaller than an urban school) for each grade section and still a superintendent for each island.

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