Cobb Board of Education members haven’t said much publicly about remarks by Superintendent Chris Ragsdale last month at a kickoff rally that led to teachers being questioned for walking out.
But those trying to “flip” a key school board election in East Cobb in November have been quite vocal since then denouncing Ragsdale’s message.
He linked sexually explicit books to sex trafficking, and said that anyone who opposes the Cobb County School District’s actions in recent years removing such materials from its schools “has no business in education or anywhere around education.”
The district has questioned possibly around 200 teachers who walked out in protest, but no disciplinary actions have thus far been revealed.
Three-term Republican incumbent David Chastain said this week that while the issue remains a personnel matter, he supports Ragsdale’s efforts to send a “clear” message about what’s become an increasingly contentious subject.
Saying that “I don’t have all the details on this,” Chastain told East Cobb News that Ragsdale “delivered a message” that some staff and teachers opposed, “but that it was a mandatory meeting.”
Chastain said that while he hasn’t discussed the issue with Ragsdale, he has no problem with the superintendent saying, “this is what we’re going to do.”
When asked by East Cobb News if he thought the remarks may have a demoralizing effect on teachers and staff, Chastain said “I don’t think so.”
Ragsdale also said in his kickoff message that “some of those very people” who oppose the removal of obscene materials “have chosen to run for the Board of Education.”
In the Post 4 race that includes the Kell, Lassiter and Sprayberry high school clusters, Chastain is facing Democrat Micheal Garza, a frequent critic of the district, with party control of the school board at stake.
Republicans hold a 4-3 majority and Democrats have increased their attacks on Chastain and the GOP members, whom they say is a rubber-stamp for Ragsdale.
Chastain is prominently including the book removal issue in his campaign, and mentioned it during a kickoff fundraiser last month as a matter of parental rights and keeping Cobb schools free from distraction in classrooms.
“We have candidates who don’t support curating media in our schools,” Chastain told East Cobb News this week. Ragsdale, he said, “sent a message to his employees and a minority of them disagreed with that message.”
In a series of short videos on his campaign Facebook page, Chastain alludes to Garza’s endorsements by a number of national organizations.
“I do not have well-funded national groups whispering in my ear, trying to get me to advance a political agenda and using our children in the process,” Chastain said in one the videos, speaking with Joy Doss, his campaign manager, who also is the president of the non-profit Cobb Schools Foundation.
Garza, a leader with the Keheley Elementary School PTA, has accused the district of censorship for what he and other Democrats frequently refer to as book bans.
This week Garza posted an interview with him and the leader of the Human Rights Campaign, a prominent national LGBTQ+ organization.
But Garza has primarily been critical of what he says is Ragsdale’s unprofessionalism and treatment toward Cobb school district staff.
“With a different board member for Post 4 and with different board leadership, things would have gone much differently,” Garza said on his campaign Facebook page this week.
“We shouldn’t be questioning the integrity of our teachers just less than a month into the start of a school year. We should be questioning our Superintendent on why he shouldn’t be out of a job.”
Related:
- Two students arrested for bringing gun to Wheeler HS
- ‘No word’ on Cobb teachers questioned for walkout on speech
- Wheeler mixed team comes in 1st at Wildcat Raider Challenge
- Ragsdale and critics clash again over books, cultural issues
- East Cobb high schools stand out in U.S. News rankings
- Letter to the Editor: Drag queen author’s book in Reading Bowl
- Cobb school board to get demographic update at work session
- East Cobb students named to Cobb Youth Leadership class
- Campaign to ‘flip’ Cobb school board control intensifies
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