The Augusta School Board censured conservative member James Orr in a 6-1 vote on Wednesday, accusing him of violating the board’s code of ethics in his opposition to an April student walkout protest against proposed budget cuts.
After the student walkout on April 30, Augusta Schools Superintendent Michael Tracy sent a complaint to the board, alleging that Orr had called students stupid and demanded that both he and Principal Kimberly Liscomb discipline the students.
The board considered the censure at Wednesday’s meeting, leveling three primary accusations at Orr: that he insulted students, calling them stupid; that he tried to suppress their ability to exercise their First Amendment rights through protest; and that he made improper demands of Liscomb and Tracy in his official capacity.
Though Board Chair Martha Witham initially moved to hold the censure discussion in executive session, Orr requested that it be held in public, and his request was honored.
He was given an opportunity to defend himself, and he argued against all of the accusations leveled against him. He said that, despite what the superintendent claimed, he referred to the protest in general as stupid, not any specific students.
“Insofar as calling kids stupid, I did not. I did not. I know what I said,” said Orr during the meeting. “I said what is going on, what they are doing is stupid and ridiculous, that they need to go back in school, because that’s where they belong. They do not need to be going out and protesting. They do not need to be going off school grounds.”
“I did say you need to get back to class. Somebody needed to say it, because there dang sure weren’t any other teachers or administrators that were out there that was telling them that they should have gone back to class,” said Orr.
Orr also argued that his efforts to stop the protest and get students to return to school in no way violated their First Amendment rights.
During his defense, he pointed to school policy regarding students swearing at teachers, something normally protected by free speech rights but prohibited for students during school hours.
Orr argued that the protest was a similar situation, and that, though the students have a First Amendment right to engage in political protests outside of school hours, that does not permit them to skip class and leave school during school hours against policy.
“We have school board policy that’s in our, that’s in the rubrics that litterally says ‘if you skip class, detention,'” said Orr.
Finally, Orr defended against the charge that he abused his position as a board member by telling school officials to discipline the students walking out according to school policy.
He drew a distinction, saying that he was speaking in his capacity as a private citizen, not a board member, at the time of the protest.
“At no time did I go walking up to any administrator, any leadership, saying ‘I’m board member James Orr and you better give [indistinguishable] to every one of these kids. I did not do that,” he added.
He admitted that he did say that the students should be suspended or given detention, but denied that he was giving a directive to school officials in his official capacity.
During his testimony, Orr raised concerns that students may have been encouraged by teachers to protest against budget cuts, and claimed that some students told him the teachers had thanked them for protesting against the cuts.
Despite Orr’s defense, the board voted 6-1 to censure him, with Orr himself being the only member to oppose the censure. The censure serves as a formal recognition that Orr violated the rules, but does not carry any actual disciplinary power.
Orr walked out of the meeting after the censure vote, and the board went into recess as members of the public shouted at the board and board members appeared to shout back.
The microphones on the livestream were muted during recess, but video showed a police officer directing a member of the public who had been shouting to leave the room.
This is not the first time Orr has faced a reprimand from the rest of the board.
In March, he received a formal reprimand for, among other things, failing to support the board’s decision to continue allowing trans-identifying males to compete in girls’ sports.
They ought to mandate the kids who walked out of class to show up on Saturday morning to make up the lost time at school.