Principal Ejected from Richmond County School Board Committee Meeting after Outburst

Augusta, GA
An elementary school principal was escorted out of the Richmond County Board of Education committee meeting Tuesday by two school safety officers after yelling that board members ignored his concerns about mold and asbestos in his building.

Hartley Gibbons, the principal at Terrace Manor Elementary School, interrupted a discussion about the priority list of construction projects being funded by the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.

When his school showed up as number 46 of 63 schools on the list, Gibbons jumped from his seat and lunged at the microphone.

Board President Alex Howard banged his gavel and board member Jimmy Atkins told Gibbons he was out of order, but the principal continued.

“I want to let it be known that Terrace Manor is a 49-year-old building!” Gibbons yelled as School Safety and Security Chief Patrick Clayton guided him out of the building. “We got mold, asbestos, and we’re number 40-something on the list. We got zero dollars!”

Safe Havens, International

Some Thoughts on the Election

The election can be boiled down to an incident that occurred yesterday.

I took my 13-year old daughter with me to the polls.  I figured I would teacher her about the electoral process, something my wife and I have done since she was born.

She watched me check in, showing my ID, and i was given my ballot, and we walked over to a voting booth.  There I showed her the ballot, explained straight ticket and split-ticket voting, and gave her my views on how to select candidates. I told her that, even when voting straight ticket, to look at all the candidates to know for whom you are voting. She didn't say anything, and I thought maybe I had lost her, as will happen with teens at times.

She came with me to the voting machine, and she watched me put the ballot in. All of a sudden, my daughter says, "'Murica!"

Startled, I looked at her. She grinned at me and I grinned back, knowing now that she had been listening, and that my lesson had been taken in.

School safety is a lot like voting.  The duty to vote is not related to whether your candidate wins or loses. Consent of the governed means that we accept the system, and because we do, we accept the outcomes of the system.

Being a School Safety Officer is not related to whether you agree with what your Superintendent or School Board says.  In the Army it was called Saluting Time.  You have input up to a point, and then it's time to salute, and drive on.  Our job is to stand on the Wall between chaos and order.  When we take a job, we consent to all the vagaries of the job, the good and the bad.

As we left the polling place, I told my daughter to look around. No gunfire, no intimidation, no threats. A peaceful transition of power in the Greatest Nation on Earth. Win or lose for your candidate, this is still 'Murica. Land of the Free, BECAUSE of the Brave.

My daughter got it and, in doing so, she taught her daddy a lesson.

Learn it, live it, and continue to stand on that Wall.

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