Corrupt Superintendent - Jerome Puyau Arrests Teacher for Speaking Out

Jerome Puyau, Corrupt Superintendent Has Teacher
Arrested.

So, in Vermillion Parish, a small city in Louisiana, a school board president and the Superintendent Jerome Puyau ordered a contracted security guard (who is supposed to be a pastor of a church) to tackle and arrest a school teacher - Deyshia Hargrave. She spoke out against Puyau's pay raise, especially given the fact that the teachers didn't receive a pay raise in 10 years. Hargrave was asked to leave, and afterwards, the guard tackled her to the floor and arrested her.

The LA Times wrote an article about it here and has included the video - which has gone viral: Teacher gets arrested for questioning superintendent pay raise (For those of you not familiar with my blog - Mayor Manuel Lozano in Baldwin Park had me arrested, strip searched and jailed for booing him and leafleting at a park - you can read about that here: Booing activist sues Baldwin Park) Well, anyways, I wrote an email to that superintendent, which I copied and pasted below. I encourage you to do the same - he's email address is: jerome.puyau@vpsb.net.

I don't think I ever shared this publicly - but after I was arrested, strip searched, and jailed - I blogged about what the Mayor Lozano and what his police officers did to me. It really encouraged me that a number of the boxers wrote back and asked me if I was ok. It helped me not feel so alone in criticizing Lozano and Manuel Carrillo's corruption.

That's why we all need to do our part to support people like Deyshia Hargrave - who take a risk, speak truth to power, and do so in the betterment of her community. I'm not sure if this is correct, but I believe her email address may be Deyshia.Hargrave@vpsb.net. Your words matters.

Here's the letter I wrote to the Superintendent:

Dear Jerome,

You're an embarrassment and a shame to your school district, your community, your city, your state, and yourself. You need to resign.

The most ignorant thing you said was the following: “If a teacher has the authority to send a student, who is acting up and she can’t control, out of the classroom to the principal’s office, under our policy we have the same rules[.]”

And my question to you is whether you should follow your policy when it violates the First Amendment, the right to Free Speech? Ms. Hargrave is not your student, and a school board meeting is not a classroom.

And if it was, the class lesson is clear, isn't it? One shall not question the authority of the Great Leader Jerome Puyau. Get over yourself.

A school board meeting is like a town hall meeting, a place where people can air their concerns, like your corrupt and disgusting pay raise. Why should you get paid more, when your teachers haven't been paid in 10 years?

And given the fact that you're so ignorant of our Constitution and ethics and American political system, you don't deserve a raise. You deserve, in my opinion, to be fired - especially after how you horribly treated that teacher. I mean, what kind of students do you expect to have, when you don't even know the basics of Free Speech?

Your argument has only one point: "I have more authority than a teacher, hence, I can abuse it and use it and shut people up." Your argument advances bullying and ignorance, especially against all the women you've thrown out of your meetings.

I also read you're complaining that your recent actions have taken a toll on you and your family. So, now you want us to feel sorry for you? Do you feel sorry for the toll you've exacted on all those teachers that haven't gotten a raise in 10 years?

According to Today, you also say: "My sisters, my family — we’re all educators," . . . “It is not fair to our families, anyone's families, anyone in Vermilion Parish." Who are you to speak of fairness, when you received a 30% raise, and your teachers haven't received anything in 10 years?

You've already shown poor decision making by having a teacher tackled and arrested and by receiving an unmerited raise when your staff are suffering. Your comments only reveal your ignorance and unrepentant attitude. And I find it cowardly, that you posted photos of your daughter and your wife and hide behind your family, mainly women for security. It's you and you alone that made terrible decisions, and it's you that needs to be held to account for them. So, don't hide behind the aprons of women. It's pathetic and weak, really.

For all these reasons, I implore you to grow up and resign, for the good of the community.

Sincerely,
Paul C.

PS: I strongly suspect that your raise is tied to corruption: Will you be doing more development, instead of serving the students?

Once again, their email addresses are the following:

jerome.puyau@vpsb.net.& Deyshia.Hargrave@vpsb.net.