蜜桃影视

The teacher who garnered national attention for her dramatic arrest outside a school board meeting in Louisiana Monday has spoken out for the first time since the incident, saying she was 鈥渁ppalled鈥� at her treatment and refuses to be 鈥渟ilenced.鈥�

Deyshia Hargrave, a middle school English language arts teacher at Rene A. Rost Middle School in Kaplan, Louisiana, first talked about the incident in a video shared on the Facebook page of the state teachers union, the Louisiana Association of Educators, emphasizing the free speech rights of teachers. The union also released a in support of Hargrave.

鈥淚鈥檓 appalled at this, and you should be too,鈥� she said.

https://www.facebook.com/louisianaassociationofeducators/videos/558259057862684/

Hargrave spoke with the Thursday morning, as did Jerome Puyau, the district superintendent whose pay raise was the source of Hargrave鈥檚 protest.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 support our people getting arrested. I do not,鈥� the superintendent said. 鈥淗owever, a person has to follow the rules.鈥�

But Puyau defended his raise. He that it was his first pay increase in his five years, and that the district has experienced significant improvement under his watch.

鈥淵ou can always use more money in the classroom,鈥� he told . 鈥淏ut when is a good time for the superintendent to get a raise?鈥�

The incident at the meeting began when Hargrave questioned the superintendent and the school board about a performance-based raise of about $30,000 for Puyau. A city marshal asked Hargrave to leave the meeting after she was ruled 鈥渙ut of order鈥� and then arrested her in a dramatic confrontation in the hallway for 鈥渞emaining after being forbidden鈥� and resisting an officer. News cameras captured the whole thing, and videos quickly went viral and sparked an outpouring of support for Hargrave.

The superintendent鈥檚 new contract will increase his salary from $110,130 to $140,811, . The board voted 5鈥�3 Monday to approve the new contract. The average teacher salary in the district is $47,522. Teachers in Vermilion Parish haven鈥檛 had a salary increase in almost 10 years.

Puyau said his staff and family have received death threats and obscene messages since the meeting. He told that many of his relatives are educators and 鈥渋t is not fair鈥� that they are being hurt by the negative publicity.

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In an , Puyau, who was at the meeting, took the blame for the backlash over Hargrave鈥檚 treatment, saying he should have stood up for the teacher鈥檚 right to speak.

Puyau did not respond to 蜜桃影视鈥檚 requests for comment.

The city attorney and prosecutor Hargrave will not face charges in the case. The school board has indicated it does not wish to press charges either.

School board president Anthony Fontana said in a that the teacher needed to be escorted out because she was not following meeting rules and that the officer who arrested her was just doing his job.

鈥淭his is not about the board, it鈥檚 about the teacher, and everybody wants to side on the poor little woman who got thrown out,鈥� . 鈥淲ell, she made a choice. She could have walked out and nothing would have happened.鈥�

Fontana鈥檚 law office said Thursday he would not answer questions about the incident.

reported that the officer in question, who is a city marshal and serves as a school resource officer in the parish, was previously accused of using excessive force on the job. Shortly after a 2011 incident that involved accusations that he and another officer slammed a man into a building and against a slab of concrete, he was terminated from the Scott Police Department. The lawsuit was settled in 2016.

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