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It's rough being a Pitt County school board member

Across the US, some people get downright mean at board meetings


Makayla Perkins & Mary Lofland / GNP contributors


It’s been a rough few years for members of the Pitt County school board, and Don Rhodes was on the front line of it.


The two-year board member recalls a time in late 2021, during the Covid-19 pandemic, when he posted a photo of his family, maskless, at a high school football game. It came back to haunt him at a school board meeting on Nov. 1, 2021, when a parent brought out the photo and accused Rhodes and the board of not abiding by mask mandates.


“We were outside following CDC rules, but they wanted to come to the board and [say], ‘Hey, he's a hypocrite’,” Rhodes recalled for the Greenville News Project. “You know that's fine. I commented on it. I said, you know, the good thing about it is, is I'm following CDC rules and that made the paper,” he said.


That’s one example of what school boards across the country have endured: parents angry at mask mandates, books in the school library and false allegations that public schools are teaching an obscure academic theory about race.


It also raises issues of ethics board members draw on in doing their jobs. The Greenville News Project spent the past few months looking at how Pitt County’s elected public school leaders define ethics and apply them in their work.


It found that school board members were cautious about their public image to avoid negative contagions from district parents.


Defining ethics


Government is built on a code of conduct and ethics in order to correct unethical behaviors, ethics expert John P. Pelissero told the News Project. He is a senior researcher at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at California’s Santa Clara University.


Ethics means public officials “attend to the public interest, rather than a private or political interest, when conducting the people’s business. Governments have a unique role to serve the common good, which is an important ethical standard,” he said.


Caroline Doherty, a now-former Pitt County school board member, said each board member must go through the ethics training process to serve in the elected position.


“In North Carolina, we are required to go for … formal ethics training, which is two days free of charge,” she said. “It is your duty to understand, obey all the laws and uphold the integrity of the board and in the office.”


Although the obligatory training is sufficient, District 5 board member Anna Barrett Smith said it could be considerably improved. “Given today’s political climate, I do think we would benefit from more ethics training and learning more on how to represent ethnicities,” she said.

Applying ethics


According to the Code of Ethics for School Board Members, the requirements include the need to conduct the affairs of the board in an open and public manner and complying with all laws governing open meetings and public records. Board members must hold all meetings open to the public so that people can voice their concerns.


Still, Rhodes said that several of the board members appear to be more concerned with getting reelected than upholding ethics. “Part of ethics to me is doing the job you were elected to do regardless of trying to remain in that position,” he said.


Two board members were up for re-election in November: Tracy Everette-Lenz and Amy Cole. Both got the News Project’s request for an interview. Everette-Lenz declined. Initially, Cole agreed but had schedule conflicts. She then requested the questions by email, and they were sent three times, but no response arrived.


“You shouldn't be concerned when you're gonna be reelected because of how you vote. To me, that's not ethical,” Rhodes said. “If you'll be worried about how and if you are gonna be reelected, and I've heard those words used a few times across the spectrum.”


Concerns for curriculum


In January 2022, the Pitt County school board held a special meeting in response to complaints from parents about sexually explicit content and profanity in books assigned to middle schoolers. Other parents insisted that the board should regulate the books being used in the school system.


A parent of a middle school student in Ayden, south of Greenville, complained that the books for curriculum were inappropriate for middle school ages.


The books included “Forged by Fire” and “Darkness before Dawn” by Sharon M. Draper, and “All American Boys” by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely. Some of the themes in the books are drug use, pedophilia, suicide and rape.


School board members approved a policy that allows parents to view the reading list and to allow alternative assignments. However, the board members could not agree to remove the books from the curriculum.


Impact of vocal parents


Board members who agreed to News Project interviews did not say whether parents’ angry accusations and incidences like the photo of Rhodes and his family make them less inclined to speak publicly outside of board meetings.


But they are socially aware of their surroundings when in public.


“I was eating popcorn at a basketball game one night, pulled my mask down to eat the popcorn and you see the guy take the picture really quick,” Rhodes said. “You see, it's blurry, and I put my mask right back up. That's the kind of stuff you deal with if you are public.”


Masks mandates came up at the public expression portion of school board meetings that allow parents to voice any concerns they have with the school system. Over the past two years, primary issues addressed, beyond masks mandates, were about the school curriculum and schools teaching an obscure academic theory about race.


Dissatisfied parents expressed their complaints in order to influence or avoid what is taught in the school systems. School board members had to become aware of the potential for violence against them, be it verbal or physical.


Doherty recalled an incident in an overflow room during a crowded school board meeting. “There was a fight during Covid; an overflow room that had more people than it could fit in the space, [and] it is very concerning that people who attended the school board meeting were fighting. There were certainly parents that were very visibly upset,” she said.


The Greenville News Project found that not only were tensions rising in Pitt County but nationally as well. The American Association of School Administrators and the National School Board Association released a statement on Sept. 21, 2022, about increased animosity toward school board members after impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.


The statement quoted former NSBA President Viola Garcia saying, “Disagreements and heated opinions are OK. Shouting contests, harassment, abuse and threats—both online and in-person—are absolutely not. School board members want to hear from the communities they serve, especially during this critical moment in the pandemic. But community input must remain respectful and civil, even if it is in opposition.”


National ‘agenda’ against school boards


On Sept. 29, 2021, the NSBA addressed the issue of animosity with President Biden. It asked that threats and acts [against school board members] be considered ‘the equivalent to a form a domestic terrorism’ requiring expedited review by the U.S Department of Justice, Education and Homeland Security, along with the appropriate training, coordination, investigations and enforcement mechanisms from the FBI.”


Pitt County school board members have been affected by oppositional parents and others. Members are expected to listen to everyone without political or religious prejudice. But that is not a license for parents to behave badly.


“There is a national agenda to attack officials verbally not physically, that I am aware of, and to demonize school board members if they don’t vote the way they should,” Doherty said. “It is very uncomfortable being called a pedophile or groomer it is very unfair (and has been) directed towards several of the board members.”


The polarization of political parties increased drastically because of Covid-19 and Pitt County school board members have fallen victim to the opinions of enraged parents.


“Living through Covid the past two years and the criticism received got out of hand and impacted my family in ways I couldn’t imagine. With the climate we live in, it just became too much,” Smith said.


Rhodes said, “Even if the person in my seat voted opposite of what I did, they are still gonna get complaints from the other side.”


Perkins and Lofland reported this story for the fall 2022 class, In-Depth Reporting.

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