This is the shocking moment a teacher was removed from a school board meeting in Louisiana after she complained about a superintendent being awarded a pay rise.
Middle school language arts teacher Deyshia Hargrave addressed the board during a public comments section of the meeting about teacher salaries and pay raises.
She was heard telling the board that it was a ‘slap in the face’ for the school superintendent to be handed a new contract that entitles him to performance-based pay rises.
‘For a superintendent or any person in a position of leadership getting any type of raise, I feel like it’s a slap in the face for teachers, cafeteria workers and any other support staff we have.’
‘We work very hard with very little to maintain the salaries we have. I don’t care if the performance targets are met — you’re making our jobs even more difficult. We’re meeting those goals, while someone in that position is getting a raise? It’s a sad, sad day to be a teacher,’ Hargrave said to board members.
‘When I first started teaching there was like 20 kids in a class and now there are 29 kids in a class, and we have not have been given raises. How are you going to take that money? It’s basically taking it out of our pockets,’ she continued.
A video obtained by KATC shows her appearing to calmly ask questions of the board when she is confronted by an officer, who forces her to leave the room.
A middle school language arts teacher in Louisiana was forcibly removed in handcuffs from a school board meeting
Board members told Hargrave and other teachers that the meeting is to discuss the superintendent’s contract and not the employees’ salary.
‘Is it against policy to stand?’ she asks as the officer grabs her arm.
‘Sir, do not,’ she says as he touches her.
He orders Hargrave to leave the premises and she follows him out.
‘She wasn’t talking to you,’ an audience member says.
‘It was commented for the superintendent,’ Hargrave continues.
Deyshia Hargrave addressed the board during a public comments section of the meeting about teacher salaries and pay raises
In the hallway, the officer then forces Hargrave to the ground and handcuffs her.
‘What are you doing?’ she yells as he restrains her.
He tells her to stop resisting, and she says ‘I am not, you just pushed me to the floor.’
‘Sir, I am way smaller than you’ she cries as he pushes her out the door of the building.
In the hallway the officer then forces Hargrave to the ground and handcuffs her
‘Sir, I am way smaller than you’ she cries as he pushes her out the door of the building
Hargrave had asked several questions at the meeting, and board president Anthony Fontana said she was out of order and said that it was not a question and answer session.
When she asked another question, the Abbeville city marshal on duty grabbed her and forced her out, as shown in the video.
The superintendent of Vermilion Parish schools said they won’t press charges against Hargrave, who is a teacher at Rene Rost Middle Schools in Kaplan, Louisiana.
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