Teacher speaks out after arrest at board meeting
ABBEVILLE, LA. — The Louisiana teacher who was ejected from a school board meeting and handcuffed after speaking out about salaries — a videorecorded arrest that sparked outrage — said Wednesday her treatment was appalling and encouraged others to speak out.
The fallout from Deyshia Hargrave’s arrest Monday night was wide-ranging, with school district officials receiving death threats and the governor saying it “cast a negative light” on the state. Video of the arrest was shared widely online.
“By taking away my voice they’ve taken away — or tried to take away — my First Amendment rights to speak,” Hargrave said in a video posted on the Louisiana Association of Educators’ Facebook page . “And I’m appalled at this, and you should be too.”
She expressed gratitude for support from students and parents in Vermilion Parish — about 150 miles west of New Orleans. “Go to your local school board meetings,” Hargrave said. “Speak out. Be vocal.”
Gov. John Bel Edwards, who is married to a teacher and gets support from teacher unions, said he “didn’t see anything that warranted that type of action.”
Superintendent Jerome Puyau said the hate emails and phone calls began pouring in after videos spread.
“I’ve stopped reading them because they’re just so bad and disgusting,” Puyau said, at times struggling to compose himself in an interview with The Associated Press. He said the school system offices went into temporary lockdown, and his daughters had to delete threats on their social media.
The turmoil follows the board’s 5-3 vote Monday night approving a new 3-year contract raising Puyau’s salary by roughly $30,000, to about $140,000 annually, with incentive targets that could add 3 percent per year.
He said the raise matches what other school officials make in similar jobs.
Hargrave, a middle school English teacher, said she felt like she was representing all teachers in the parish by questioning the raise, at a time when teachers haven’t received an increase in 10 years, despite growing class sizes and other demands.
Video of the meeting shows that Hargrave addressed the superintendent directly after she was asked by a board member to comment on the contract vote.
“How are you going to take that money, because it’s basically taken out of the pockets of teachers?” she said, prompting School Board President Anthony Fontana to bang his gavel.
“Stop right now! That’s not germane to what’s on the agenda tonight,” Fontana declared.
The crowd, now agitated, cried “Yes it is!” and the teacher pressed on, saying “this directly speaks to what you were just voting on.”
At that point, according to school board member Kibbie Pillette, Fontana beckoned to a school resource officer hired by the board, who confronted Hargrave, ordering her to get her things and go.
“I’m going,” she said, making her way out. Moments later — after briefly leaving the view of any cameras — she was on the hallway floor with her hands behind her back, being handcuffed.