BY TED SHOCKLEY, Eastern Shore Post —
The Accomack County Sheriff’s Office recently has investigated reports of crimes by school students including possession of child pornography, blackmail, assault, bomb threats, and threats of bringing guns to class.
Sheriff Todd Wessells made the sobering disclosure during the Accomack School Board’s Tuesday, Oct. 15, meeting and said his office sometimes does not get help from school officials when investigating crimes.
“I just need some cooperation,” he said.
The raucous meeting again exposed deep fissures involving the school board, the school superintendent, law enforcement, the community, and school system employees.
One speaker said the school board’s treatment of Superintendent Rhonda Hall reflected a “political, racist agenda.”
Another speaker, the husband of a school cafeteria manager who received a 1.29% raise after a compensation study, told the school board, “You can take her job and shove it up your backside.”
James Fedderman, an Accomack teacher, said during the meeting that a voter recall process has begun to remove Chairwoman Janet Martin Turner from the school board.
In addition, a Chincoteague parent said several threats to “shoot up” Chincoteague Combined School “on specific dates” were not communicated to parents.
Before the meeting, held at Metompkin Elementary School, a prayer vigil was held outside in support of Hall, who last month had a pay raise rescinded by the school board — because the school board never approved the raise.
Speakers’ withering criticism of the school board and the superintendent only seven weeks after the start of the school year left the impression of fraying public confidence in elected and appointed school board leaders.
In September, Hall was reprimanded by Lisa Coons, state superintendent of public instruction, for not following school protocol regarding cooperating with local law enforcement after a school shooting was threatened.
Wessells also told the school board in September that Hall did not cooperate with the sheriff’s office during a criminal investigation.
In a rebuttal sent to parents, Hall said there was “a lot of misinformation” reported about the threat that drew the state superintendent’s rebuke.
Hall was criticized during Tuesday’s meeting by Accomack County resident Sam Sellard, who said the superintendent still has not “assembled a threat-assessment team,” as directed by the state superintendent.
Sellard said Hall was “excoriated” for her “incompetence.”
But the bulk of the vitriol during the meeting was reserved for the school board for its alleged disrespect of Hall and for the compensation study, which apparently gave some of the school system’s lowest earners the smallest raises.
Fedderman described it as “a system of chaos, confusion, and the misuse of power, as well as the ongoing attacks against the superintendent that [are] rooted in racism, deceit, and hatred.”
“The community is watching and we demand better,” said speaker Quintavion Washington.
