A teacher in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, was escorted out of a school board meeting by a city marshal, handcuffed and arrested after speaking out against a pay raise for the district’s superintendent. You can watch video of the incident above.
Deyshia Hargrave, a 32-year-old teacher at Rene Rost Middle School, addressed the school board during pubic comments to discuss teacher salaries and pay raises, KATC-TV reports. According to the news station, Hargrave asked several questions and board president Anthony Fontana then ruled her out of order, saying that the public comment section was not a question-and-answer period. Hargrave was then called on a second time to speak and asked the board another question, KATC reports. She was then removed from the meeting by an Abbeville city marshal. A KATC reporter then recorded the marshal putting Hargrave into handcuffs and escorting her from the building.
According to KATC, Hargrave was booked into the Abbeville city jail on charges of remaining were forbidden and resisting an officer. She later bailed out of jail. The school district told the news station that they will not be pressing charges, but it was not immediately clear if the charges were dropped.
You can watch a longer version of the video, including portions of the meeting prior to the arrest, and Hargrave being taken out of the building, below:
School board member Kibbie Pillette told KADN-TV that the board voted at the meeting by a 5-3 margin to give the Vermilion Parish superintendent Jerome Puyau a 3-year contract extension with a $38,000 raise.
Hargrave was questioning why the superintendent would get a raise while teachers haven’t seen a bump in pay in years, according to the news station.
“I have a serious issue with a superintendent or any person of leadership getting any type of raise,” Hargrave said to the board, according to the video posted by Chris Rosa. “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.”
Hargrave also expressed frustration that “performance goals” were cited as a reason Puyau was receiving a reason. She told the board that it is the teachers who are responsible for helping the district reach those goals.
Several teachers were in attendance at the meeting to express their frustration with the pay raise for the superintendent.
Hargrave is an English language arts teacher at Rene Rost Middle School. The school district and other authorities have not commented about her arrest since Monday night. Hargrave has also not commented.
Read more about Deyshia Hargrave and the incident here: