Banned from the Board: Board Bullies Try to Silence Rape
Last night, Ann Stephens Cherry, Chairman of the Hampton School Board, banned me from attending meetings. I called her out of her name — I will own that. But I’d like to do a full breakdown of the meeting so that you can see the passive-aggressive behavior that was reflected in her behavior. That should provide some context on how and why I lost my shit and did something WAY out of character.
So here’s the introduction:
The main topics at this school board meeting were the named sponsorships for the Academies at Hampton, statistical information about Hampton’s progress against state standards, and the CISM implementation. CISM stands for Critical Incident Stress Management, and I’m sure Hampton City Schools felt the need to address this because of the shooting at Heritage High School in Newport News. Apropos, the gist of the meeting was that Hampton City Schools wanted three hours to preen over themselves and stroke their own egos. Here is Clip One.
Notice that Ann Stephens Cherry is attempting to enforce a mask mandate all while wearing her mask INCORRECTLY — it’s not covering her nose.
So here’s Clip Two — the first instance when Ann Stephens Cherry and the rest of the Hampton School Board wants to stroke their own egos.
Out of all of that video, I want you to hold on to Ann Stephens Cherry’s own words:
“If you can’t help, why are you here?”
In the next video, you’ll see the Hampton School Board fall over themselves to congratulate themselves. I only included this to set a pattern of how they LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE to talk about themselves but hate to actually work.
The next video is just further proof that when it comes to talking about themselves, there is no time limit.
I’ll admit — this next video choked me up. Ms. Heard, Academies of Hampton Director, spoke about how she saw parents leaving children in the care of Hampton City Schools. She talked about how we entrust our most prized possessions with Hampton City Schools. I did that. I entrusted my BABY with Hampton City Schools and what happened? She was repeatedly raped ON THEIR WATCH. Hearing this broke my whole heart.
The clip below is some more ego-stroking from the school board, as well as Ann Stephens Cherry trying to flex her nuts against Joe Kilgore in the STUPIDEST exchange I’ve ever seen in my life. Note, Ann Stephens Cherry and Dr. Richard Mason ousted Joe Kilgore from his position as chair of the school board in a coup earlier this year. Don’t get it twisted — I have no love for Joe Kilgore either, but to sit there and browbeat a dude because he had to attend virtually was just all parts of dumb.
Okay, in the previous sections, I didn’t include a lot of video from the actual topics being discussed in the meeting. This next video, however, please find the ENTIRE video from the presentation. This video is about the CSIM program that Hampton City Schools has adopted. I’m positive this was as a result of the shooting at Heritage High School last month as well as the bomb threats at all four Hampton High Schools. The way they positioned it, however, was as a critical trauma response unit. My daughter’s repeated rapes on school property is a critical trauma event and the parent population, the faculty and the children INCLUDING MY DAUGHTER fall into this CISM protocol they are trying to champion.
This is what was on the slide that Hampton City Schools defined as a critical incident:
“A critical incident is an unexpected, traumatic event that affects an individual’s feelings of personal safety, their ability to perform daily activities, and their ability to concentrate on their normal job duties. Simply put, a critical incident is a traumatic event that has sufficient power to overwhelm an individual’s ability to cope. A critical incident is not defined by the incident itself; it is defined by an individual’s and/or an organization’s reaction to what occurred.”
Rape qualifies as that, right? RIGHT.
The next thing — I can’t define or outline it any better than they did themselves.
So the next video is again a moment where they are stroking their own egos, but I want you to pay CLOSE ATTENTION to what Dr. Richard Mason, Vice-Chair of the new coup Hampton School Board says.
He says:
“When you look at trauma and you look at mental health, our world continues to move even when we are in crisis. And so we know that trauma can create so many obstacles and issues for everyday functioning, simply from depression to anxiety and we know that CISM works. There’s data to support that it’s certainly going to reduce those areas and especially coming back to school from a pandemic. There’s so many things that being in this pandemic…. As we look at some of these situations now, we’re going to find that some other things are going to bubble up because trauma is longitudinal and there are some things that we experience as adults that we experienced in our childhood that created those things — we refer to those things as adverse childhood experiences. We don’t realize that those things can cause hypertension, diabetes, and strokes and all of those things in our lives….”
YOU’RE RIGHT, TRAUMA IS LONGITUDINAL, DOCTOR MASON! TRAUMA IS LONGITUDINAL!!!
Aight, here’s the parts you’ve been waiting for! The next video is Ann Stephens Cherry threatening me passive-aggressively. She quips “Speaking before the school board is a privilege, not a right.” Excuse me?? So not you don’t have to answer to tax-paying citizens who have children in Hampton City Schools?!?!?” When I asked, “Is that a threat?” she told me to “Be quiet,” in which I responded, “I respectfully need you to answer my question.”
Now, I’m not going to make you watch everyone who spoke, but I am going to provide some context before you see what I do get a chance to say. I arrived at Jones Middle School at 5:15 PM for a School Board Meeting that started at 6:30 PM. I was the first person to arrive next to the School Board Clerk. I filled out my Public Comment Form and sat down. I did that because I wanted to speak FIRST. I’ve done the exact same thing every time I’ve attended. I’d turn my form in first and then my 15-year-old daughter would turn in her form so that she could speak after me. Ann Stephens Cherry PURPOSEFULLY moved my form to the back so that I had to speak last and she could read the shitty statement prepared by Kellie Goral (https://nikiakmiller.medium.com/meet-this-karen-hampton-city-schools-and-their-official-response-to-the-repeated-rape-of-an-7f0b4960e91) after I spoke. Now, understand that this is a CLEAR VIOLATION of the rules of the Board. The video of those rules are below:
Here is the video up to the point where Ann Stephens Cherry FIRST interrupted me.
“Excuse me ma’am, can you put on your mask?”
“EXCUSE ME “IMPROPER MASK ANN” — WHAT?!?!?!?”
Here’s Part Two which includes her interrupting me again, me yelling some, her kicking me out of the meeting by Hampton Police Department Escort and me calling her a “Fucking Bitch.”
Oh, and let’s not forget to mention her PUBLICLY RESPONDING to what I said as well as calling me “THAT PERSON.” AN ELECTED OFFICIAL calling a constituent “THAT PERSON.”
So these are the highlights. Don’t get me wrong — calling Ann Stephens Cherry a ‘fucking bitch’ was not my best moment. In hindsight, however, the members of the Hampton School Board and the Superintendent of Schools have been stomping all over my courtesy for nineteen months. I gave them plenty of opportunities to do the right thing with minimal lifts. They can spend $30,000/school on renaming but can’t spend $120/month on therapy. They care so much about trauma and mental health, but my DAUGHTER WAS REPEATEDLY RAPED ON SCHOOL PROPERTY and she’s expendable. The Hampton School Board doesn’t give a shit about anything that doesn’t put them in the press or gives them the ability to fawn all over themselves. I gave Ann Stephens Cherry back her words — “If you can’t help, then WHY ARE YOU HERE?” The seven members of the Hampton School Board and the Superintendent of Schools are useless and have no place in assisting in the education of our children. EACH ONE OF THEM need to be REPLACED.
What I find the most ironic from last night is that because the Hampton School Board LOVES to hear themselves talk, they pretty much so outlined my whole position — I TRUSTED YOU WITH ONE OF MY MOST PRIZED POSSESSIONS and YOU FAILED. Trauma is LONGITUDINAL. Children deserve a chance to thrive and be supported. And MOST IMPORTANTLY, TRAUMA has LIFELONG EFFECTS.
The videos that you see here? Hampton City Schools tried to scrub. They uploaded a version of the meeting that was muted and had a still image after the first 30 minutes of the meeting. What they did FIRST, however, is upload the entire meeting. They thought they had caught it in time, but they weren’t quick enough. I’d been waiting for that video all morning and the moment it posted, I downloaded all three hours of it. Hampton City Schools was trying to hide this from you. They don’t want you to know the truth. They want you to be in the dark about my daughter’s rapes, which just by their actions to hide this makes them an unethical, moronic mess.
A security officer with Hampton City Schools hand-delivered a “No Trespass Notice” today to my home. It basically states that I am banned from school board meetings for a year and that in order to return, I have to write a request and proverbially “Kiss the Ring.” I have a better idea — how about I run? Nanci Reaves, School Board General Counsel KNOWS I have an attorney and that she NEVER should have had ANYTHING delivered to me. But again, this is Hampton City Schools not giving a damn about their own protocols but making sure that their protocols are enforced on everyone else. As a taxpayer and a parent to two children who still remain in the district, the school board’s attempt to silence my voice is futile. For attempting to silence me, 50 more will be awakened. For each of them, another 50 more. So when 500 people show up to the next school board meeting and you spend days listening to the public telling you how “TRAUMA IS LONGITUDINAL” and “SCHOOLS SHOULD BE SAFE.” EVERY CHILD, EVERY DAY, WHATEVER IT TAKES. I wish that things could be better, but I’m battle-tested and battle-ready.
Let the war commence.
#8forCeleste
