FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Clarksville – Tuesday night the CMCSS School Board let our community down. Parents, students, and residents of Montgomery county came together to ask for answers, to speak on their experiences in the wake of multiple tragedies. Instead of being heard, they were ignored and eventually removed from the meeting.
Chair Chris Lanier, who is also running for the State House of Representatives, put his own power over the pleas of grieving parents and the bravery of young students standing up for their safety and their education. This was the perfect opportunity for the board to address the growing concerns of the community, but instead they refused to address two of the issues brought up and used their time during the meeting to propose a rule change to limit the amount of time for each member of the public to speak. At best, this was poor timing and most certainly lacking the transparency that the public was crying out for. When the room got heated, Chair Lanier shut down the meeting, cleared out the public, and walked away.
This is not governance, this is not leadership, and this certainly is not the behavior of someone who is seeking to represent Clarksville at the state level. The actions of Chair Lanier did nothing to appease the strong emotions in the room. It only served to escalate them.
Strong leadership is not only capable of hearing criticisms, but welcomes the opportunity to hear how to be better. In the aftermath of this meeting rather than addressing parents and students’ concerns, Lanier released a statement bragging about his volunteer efforts.
Our community is hurting, our children don’t feel safe, and our school board’s reaction is to shorten public comments. As was pointed out by former Chair Kent Griffy, there have been only a few occasions in the past four years when having too many requests to speak has been an issue. Given the public interest in the board’s actions at the current time, this reaction is entirely questionable. Moving to decrease time for public comments in the middle of several controversies further undermines our community’s ability to work together. We need more conversation, not less.
Points of Contact:
Tanisha Taylor, Press Secretary: press@mctndp.org
Rebecca Janssen, Communications Chair: communications@mctndp.org
