So there’s been a lot said about security at board meetings lately. Take Saturday’s article by Crystal Bonvillian of the Times, “Huntsville school board meeting audience met with metal detectors.”

Laurie McCaulley was told that Al Lankford, the district’s security chief, was concerned about “body language and demeanor at some of the meetings.” This is quite a curious statement.

You see, as someone who regularly attends board meetings, I am, of course, concerned about security at the meetings. Heck, my daughter was in attendance at the board meeting on March 15th, so of course I am interested in making certain that these bi-weekly meetings are safe. Every sane person shares that concern.

If I didn’t believe the meetings were safe, I wouldn’t go. If I didn’t believe they were safe, I certainly wouldn’t have allowed my daughter to attend.

But I do, and I did. And I’ve been at every board meeting since April 7, 2011 except two. In fact, if we count simply the bi-weekly board meetings for the past year, I’ve probably attended more of them than Al Lankford has attended. (For some reason Mr. Lankford wasn’t present from the January 17th meeting until about a month later. I was pleased to see him return.)

In other words, I’ve seen nothing in the audience’s body language and demeanor that would lead me to the conclusion that someone was behaving in a threatening manner. What I see at board meetings are people laughing, talking, applauding, saluting, and mostly sitting quietly and listening to the meeting.

Now, granted, I’m not there to watch the audience; I’m there to listen to the business being conducted. I’m also not a trained security officer. I know for a fact that a trained police officer is capable of “seeing” more than I.

But I am a writer and a teacher. I take my subject matter from observation of people as a writer, and I know when my students are alert, engaged, interested and learning (and I know when they are not) on the basis of their body language. So, while I do not have the years of training that I am sure Mr. Lankford has in identifying a threat, I do believe I am capable of seeing and noticing when someone is behaving in a threatening manner.

So while this is just my unprofessional assessment, not once have I seen anyone in the audience behave in a way that would cause me to be concerned about my safety.

But then I don’t see the world as Mr. Lankford, (or Dr. Wardynski for that matter) sees it. For example, Mr. Lankford, during our conversations on Thursday night asserted that sitting quietly and holding an iPad recording the Superintendent’s comments was an intimidating action. During that same conversation, he also referenced my sitting quietly at the State of the Schools address and holding an iPhone directed toward Dr. Wardynski and his presentation as an intimidating action.

He even claimed that my standing silently for 80 seconds as I waited for a response to my comments as an “intimidating action.” He stated multiple times that I was “intimidating the board” and that he wasn’t going to allow me to do that. He even implied that my sitting silently with my head down, live tweeting the meeting was questionable.

So it seems to me that he sees a threat where I do not.

It seems to me that Dr. Wardynski also sees threats in things that just don’t seem threatening to me. For example, during his presentation to the board concerning his recommendation to put a fence and a “welcome center” (read: guard shack) around the new Lee High campus, he asked for several photos of the neighborhood surrounding Lee High to be displayed for the board and the public.

Here are just a few of the photos he showed to establish the “aesthetic” of the new Lee High campus “neighborhood.” I’ve photographed these shots off of the eTV Broadcast on Thursday night.

And like any true showman, he saved the best one for last. Here’s what Dr. Wardynski said when he introduced the picture below:

This is in the neighborhood. That fence there is, which fence is that, Glenn? Coca-Cola Plant, and what’s the one on the left? That’s the soldier’s home? So the solder’s home has an ornamental fence as well which adds to the character of the community.

Here’s the picture that accompanied the text that Dr. Wardynski was using to justify the $600,000 fence around Lee High School:

So, what’s the central detail of this photograph? What’s the first thing to catch your eye? What’s the single detail that will convince much of America that additional security around Lee High is necessary?

Don’t see it? Here’s a close up:

Evidently Dr. Wardynski didn’t see it as he didn’t comment on it, but I see a faceless figure, probably male, approximately six feet tall wearing stained jeans, a dark tee-shirt underneath the scariest item of clothing known to at least parts of America: the Hoodie.

Yes, in order to convince the board to support the new fence around Lee High, he showed them a picture of a person in a hoodie. (Truthfully, I think the board had already made up their minds on this matter. I think this was intended to drive the need for a fence home to the general public.)

Now, for the record, I am not opposed to the fence around Lee High. I think it’s overpriced. I think that the price should have been included in the $40 million spent to build the school, but I don’t think it’s a bad idea. Many schools have a clearly defined parameter.

But the superintendent’s methods of getting what he wants are at best questionable here. While I’m sure he would claim to either not noticing the person in the hoodie or not understanding that it might communicate something that he didn’t intend to communicate, it would seem that he is at least inadvertently using fear, uncertainty, and doubt to get what he wants.

One might even say that he is intimidating others into supporting his recommendation.

So there may have been some acts of intimidation taking place on Thursday night, but if there were, those actions weren’t initiated by me. I was sitting quietly in my seat listening, tweeting, and eventually attempting to record the superintendent’s words until I was ordered to stop.

One might argue that security was being used to intimidate members of the public for undertaking state statute protected activities. One might argue that the superintendent was attempting to influence the board and the public by using emotionally charged, racially charged images. One might argue that the superintendent was the one attempting to intimidate others the last time that citizen comments were broadcast in his comments to a teacher who stood up for what she believes in.

(I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that the citizen’s comments to the board weren’t broadcast during the board meeting immediately following the superintendent’s “cautioning” of a teacher. You know, the meeting where the citizen’s comments worked against him.)

In the article, Mr. Lankford is quoted as saying, “We’re tired of getting threats;” I’m sure that our teachers, administrators, staff, and parents all agree with him on this.

I’m certain the metal detectors will help with this problem.

The post Intimidation at Board Meetings appeared first on Geek Palaver.

For some reason, I was told it was an accident, the broadcast of the board meeting tonight on eTV was cut off just as Citizen Comments were about to start. (And yes, for the record, I believe that it was an accident.)

There was little to no indication of this in the meeting, but I received many texts, tweets and Facebook comments concerning this. After I completed my comments, which I’ll post below, Dr. Wardynski indicated that he wanted to respond to my comments about spending more money on Instructional Assistants. He was asked to wait since there were other comments to follow mine.

Dr. Wardynski decided to wait to respond.

As my typical readers know, I like to make an attempt to capture Dr. Wardynski’s comments exactly as he shares them.

Knowing that the recording had been cut off, I decided to record the superintendent’s response. As my iPhone’s battery was running low, I got out my iPad to record it.

This is allowed under Alabama’s Sunshine Law:

“A meeting of a governmental body, except while in executive session, may be openly recorded by any person in attendance by means of a tape recorder or any other means of sonic, photographic, or video reproduction provided the recording does not disrupt the conduct of the meeting. The governmental body may adopt reasonable rules for the implementation of this section.” Alabama Code Section 36-25A-6.

I was not standing, moving, or blocking anyone’s view with my recording. I do not believe that I was disrupting the conduct of the meeting in anyway. I was not talking, and the video makes no sound. Furthermore, the meeting continued even while Mr. Lankford of security was asking that I turn off the recording and step outside to discuss it.

I complied with his requests.

I was told that I could not record the meeting because it was an intimidating action on my part. And since I had done other intimidating actions before, (referring to the time when I stood silently for about 80 seconds at the end of my comments waiting for an answer), I would not be allowed to record the meeting.

It seems that the board and the superintendent are intimidated by someone attempting to convey their thoughts and ideas to others.

{By the way, yes, those are cameras that you see in the background over Dr. Robinson’s right shoulder. I did not attempt to use them.)

__________

I spoke with Mrs. Morrison after the meeting was over. I told her what had happened, and I offered her my apology if my actions intimidated her.

The former principal laughed. Which was nice.

After the meeting I also ran into Mr. Brooks, the board attorney. He offered me his hand and said, “Good job.”

The school board attorney didn’t seem too intimidated by a parent in a purple tee-shirt.

Before the meeting began, and granted, before I recorded any portion of the meeting, Mr. Blair sat down beside me and asked how things were going with my family.

He and I had an extremely pleasant conversation in which I shared with him much of what I planned to say during the public comments. He was compassionate and sympathetic.

He was also friendly and funny.

I greatly appreciated his time and willingness to engage me in a conversation.

He did not seem to be intimidated. (I suspect that as Mrs. Morrison had done, he would have laughed if I had asked him if I was a intimidating him.)

Although I had spoken during the citizen comments, and yes, I did make eye contact with Dr. Wardynski while I was thanking him for coming to the Autism Awareness Month kickoff and the PTA Reflections Award Luncheon in Mobile, I don’t believe that I was threatening in any way in my comments. Feel free to judge for yourself. (Since the board broadcast was turned off, we don’t have a video recording of these comments.)

Dr. Warydnski, I want to thank you for your presence at the Autism Awareness Month kickoff at Hampton Cove Middle School on April 11th. I also want to thank you for your presence at the State PTA Reflections awards this past Saturday in Mobile. Your support of those of us with children on the spectrum and of the arts is greatly appreciated by myself and my family.

I’m here tonight to ask for a little more help.

At the January 19th board meeting, I shared with you and the board just a few of the never-ending changes in my son’s classroom at Challenger. That night I mentioned the revolving door of aides, Occupational Therapists, Speech Therapists, and even an entirely altered classroom.

As we saw with my son this weekend in Mobile, he doesn’t handle change well, and yet change seems to be forced upon him non-stop in his classroom.

Since I reported this to you in January, the rate of change has increased. In February, both of his aides, or two-thirds of the adults in the classroom were take out of his room. So the revolving door of aides continued into the second half of the year.

Then after a little more than a month another of his aides quit to take a better paying job. This isn’t at all surprising since EPSCO aides make approximately nine dollars an hour without benefits.

Honestly, a McDonalds employee has a better deal. McDonalds offers their employees health insurance and retirement.

Is it any wonder that the aides are so quick to leave?

It’s more surprising that so many of them returned from last year when they took about a $2.00 an hour pay cut to keep working with our kids.

We have to do better. Our kids deserve better. Change hurts everyone including those who aren’t on the spectrum.

For example, my daughter came home in tears on Monday because of the radical changes that are being planned for Mt. Gap Elementary. she’s losing “her” library, and that breaks her heart.

Dr. Wardynski, we need for these things to be resolved now. At the March meeting with the Mt. Gap PTA, you told us that you would be announcing who our new principal would be, and I quote, “in the middle of April.”

It’s now May 3rd, and we still don’t know. And our teachers still can’t plan for next year. And our little girls are still coming home in tears.These words don’t seem intimidating to me, but clearly I’m not a good judge of that.

So, as a public service, I would again like to offer my assurances to Dr. Wardynski, Mrs. McCaulley, Mr. Blair, Mrs. Morrison, Mr. Birney, and Dr. Robinson and anyone else who regularly attends board meetings that it is not my intention to make you feel intimidated.

I’ll fully own up to my intention to pay attention and to question what you do. I’ll also own up to my intention to speaking up for those who cannot speak for themselves. But it is not my intention to intimidate you in any way.

Fear and intimidation are a coward’s approach to getting what he wants. I’m attempting to reason with the district’s leadership. Nothing more.

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