After getting an earful from citizens upset over President Donald Trump’s visit to Wheeler High School this week, Cobb County School District Superintendent Chris Ragsdale fired back.
At a Thursday night Cobb Board of Education meeting, Ragsdale defended the district’s decision to allow Trump and leading Georgia Republican candidates to speak inside the Wheeler gym.
Shortly after he began reading from prepared remarks, a few citizens interrupted with heckling, just as they did during a public comment period prior to that.
He said the White House decision to come to a Cobb school was “a rare and historic honor,” and while there were protestors, “the large majority of Cobb residents treated it as the honor it was.”
Ragsdale spoke briefly at the start of the Trump event, and acknowledged in his comments Thursday that while this president is “not universally liked,” other presidents have not as well.
But “like all of them, when the president of the United States chooses to honor your school district, you say yes.
“The saying, ‘Not My President’ is not an option for a school system . . . We do not control the president, the White House, the Secret Service or the content of any remarks of anyone the president asks to speak.”
At both board meetings Thursday, many speakers said that’s why there shouldn’t have been what they said amounted to a political rally to take place on a public school ground at all.
All of the other elected officials on the Wheeler stage were Republican nominees for state office—governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and secretary of state.
Some questioned the district’s process for permitting the Trump event to take place, and how much local taxpayer dollars and district staff time was spent.
Others said too little of what transpired showcased the educational accomplishments that the Cobb school district touted in having the president come here.
“We’re just seeking some transparency about the planning and the execution of the event,” said Laura Judge of East Cobb, who ran for the Post 5 school board seat as a Democrat in 2024.
“You had to know that Trump’s appearance would further divide Cobb neighbors and increase angst,” said Rose Caplan during the evening board meeting.
“Why would you host a political rally when the headlines spread vile propaganda and disrespect for women?”
A few minutes before that, the meeting was stopped for a moment when speaker Andrew Nelms began yelling at the board during his public comment.
“Why did you welcome a pedophile to one of our schools? Why did you stump for it?”
When board chairman Randy Scamihorn asked for order, Nelms shot back that “there should have been order yesterday!”
Nelms had his microphone cut off, then flipped a bird toward the dais.
Ella Ugwuandu, a 2023 Wheeler graduate, told the board that when she learned her former high school was to have a Trump event, “it felt like a gut punch.”
She said Wheeler’s strength is its diversity and having the event at Wheeler “truly rattled my trust in the district’s ability to protect and represent Cobb County students.”
But several speakers thanked Ragsdale and the board for having the event.
One of them was Leroy Emkin of Marietta, a retired Georgia Tech professor, who said it was “an honor” for Cobb schools to have “a president of the United States who chose to come here.
“You have done an incredible job to keep DEI out of our schools, to keep woke out of our schools, and to teach our kids what they need to know in school.”
At the later meeting, the district presented a video from the Wheeler event, which also was interrupted, so Scamihorn ordered that it be shown again.
Ragsdale said that Trump is the third sitting president to visit a Cobb school, following Ronald Reagan in 1984 and George W. Bush in 2003. Barack Obama also held a campaign rally at McEachern High School in 2008 during his first run for the presidency.
“Anyone who opposes our district having the president needs to take a long, hard look in the mirror and ask themselves if they are supporting students or waving their own political flag,” Ragsdale said.
You can watch all the public commenters below, thanks to the Cobb County Courier (since the Cobb school district does not air them), followed by Ragsdale’s full remarks.
Related:
- East Cobb students earn National PTA ‘Reflections’ honors
- Trump draws fans, foes to ‘rocking and rollin’ Wheeler HS rally
- 70+ Cobb educators earn doctorates from Georgia’s BEST
- Trump’s visit to Wheeler HS: Preparations, protests and more
- 2nd Cobb Innovation and Technology location opens
- New assistant principals named at East Cobb schools
- Former Wheeler football coach named assistant principal at Pope
- Kincaid ES PTA to receive Georgia state arts education grant
- Profiles: New principals at McCleskey MS and Timber Ridge ES
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It’s quite simple. We have had prior visits from former Presidents and we will continue to welcome future leaders to visit our schools. It doesn’t matter whether I supported that President or not. It is still an honor for Cobb County to be recognized nationally and the Superintendent most certainly should have been there. For those that think they have a right to pick and choose based on their political preferences I would remind them that they do not have the support of the US Constitution. That is why every eligible US citizen has the right to vote. I would suggest they exercise it there.
Andrew Nelms isn’t going to get any support from reasonable and responsible voters. He acted deranged yelling at the school board and flipping them the bird. We are a society of laws, yet he accuses Trump of being a pedophile without any evidence. Probably heard that on social media and thinks it’s the truth without any proof to back it up. The radical left will make all kinds of false statements to play on emotions that sometimes causes ordinary people to act out.
Trump is one of the greatest presidents ever. Flipping off school board members is classic move for the people ruining are country.
It must be exhausting spending all of your time looking for a reason to be offended.
Shame on you! How do you expect a “president” who doesn’t know anything about education or history to highlight such themes? This was not an event for kids, teens, or any Cobb County student. Call it by the name: It was a rally to insult Democrats, criticize transgender people and immigrants, and a rally to buy votes (by Rick Jackson, BTW, it’s totally illegal).
But what can be expected from Raggsdale when he allows indecent individuals who commit fraud to be part of the Cobb County Board?
You shouldn’t lie, Trump didn’t criticize trans. Most Americans do not want Trans athletes playing against girls and that is what he referred to. How would you like it if a Trans seriously injured your daughter in an athletic event? How would you like it if a trans fixated on your daughter while she changed in the locker room? Regarding immigration, he didn’t criticize immigrants that followed the rules to gain entry to America. Most Americans like immigrants that got here through proper and lawful procedures. However, we don’t like the free for all we saw under Biden where the border were open despite Biden and his leaders telling us the borders were secure…liars.