(9 Mar 2018) Louisiana's attorney general sued a local school board Thursday over a meeting disrupted by the video-recorded arrest of a teacher being roughly handcuffed on a hallway floor after she criticized the district superintendent's pay raise.
Attorney General Jeff Landry's lawsuit accuses the Vermilion Parish School Board and its members of violating the state's Open Meetings Law by stifling public debate at the Jan. 8 meeting.
Middle school English teacher Deyshia Hargrave was ordered out of that meeting, then arrested, after criticizing a vote to increase Schools Superintendent Jerome Puyau's salary by roughly $30,000. The video of her being handcuffed on a hallway floor sparked outrage after it spread on the internet.
"Finally, finally. It has been the most stressful two months of thinking that nothing was going to happen and that all this happened for nothing, and something has happened," Hargrave told The Associated Press in a Thursday interview outside the Kaplan school where she works. "So, this is awesome news, awesome news, for not just me, for anyone who speaks at public meetings."
The suit asks a state court to nullify all actions taken by the board during that meeting, including its vote to raise Puyau's pay.
It also seeks civil penalties against any board members found responsible for violating the Open Meetings Law and says the school system should be reimbursed for any extra money the superintendent received under his raise.
"Every community has a stake in the performance and the governance of its public schools, and the community's views and thoughts should be taken into account before any action or discussion on an agenda item occurs," the suit says.
Deputy City Marshal Reggie Hilts arrested Hargrave, a middle school English teacher, after escorting her out of the meeting room and handcuffing her on the hallway floor.
Hilts arrested Hargrave on charges of "remaining after being forbidden" and resisting an officer. Ike Funderburk, the prosecutor and city attorney in Abbeville, decided in January not to pursue any criminal charges against her.
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