Teacher handcuffed after questioning superintendent's $38,000 raise during school meeting
A Louisiana teacher was handcuffed and escorted out of a school board meeting after she questioned the superintendent's $38,000 raise, according to KATC.
Deyshia Hargrave, a language arts teacher at Rene A. Rost Middle School in Vermillion Parish, stood up at a school board meeting on Monday to ask why superintendent Jerome Puyau was receiving a large raise while educators and other staff members were not.
"I have a serious issue with a superintendent or any person of leadership getting any type of raise," she said at the meeting. "I feel like it’s a slap in the face to all the teachers, cafeteria workers and any other support staff we have. We work very hard, with very little, to maintain the salaries we have."
KATC reports that following Hargrave's comments, board president Anthony Fontana ruled that she was out of order and warned her that the public comment section was not a question-and-answer session. But when the board ultimately voted to approve Puyau's new contract with the $38,000 raise, the frustrated teacher stood up again to speak out.
After Hargrave began asking more questions about the raise, a city marshal on duty at the meeting allegedly approached her and warned, "you are going to leave or I am going to remove you. Take your things and go.”
When Hargrave wouldn't budge, the marshal escorted her out of the room, pushed her to the floor, handcuffed her in the hallway and removed her from the building.
According to Ike Funderburk, Abbeville's city attorney and prosecutor, no charges will be filed against Hargrave.
"I have reviewed the video and I am not going to approve any charges against the teacher," Funderburk told KATC. "I talked with the attorney for the school board, and they do not wish to pursue any charges against the teacher."
He also added that the marshal who arrested Hargrave is a school officer employed by the school board who was "not acting in any official capacity on behalf of the city of Abbeville."
