Charleston County House Delegation meets with community amid CCSD tension
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD)- The Charleston County House Delegation met Monday, to continue the conversation about the legality of placing Dr. Eric Gallien on paid administrative leave.
Almost every seat inside the North Charleston Council Chambers were filled, with dozens of people getting up to speak.
Including three of the CCSD board members who voted against Dr. Gallien’s leave.
“In three years, I’ve never seen anything like this,” CCSD board member Courtney Waters said.
“Is it bad enough that illegal actions and FOIA violations are being committed?” CCSD board member Eileen Roberson added.
The outpouring of support for Dr. Gallien was expressed from teachers, parents and even students in CCSD.
“With me today I have junior and senior students who have seen the stress and chaos of politics filter into our classrooms,” CCSD student Brookes Whetmore said.
One speaker says he thought it was concerning that the members who voted in favor of Dr. Gallien’s leave weren’t there.
“The side that is not in favor of anything here is not represented here,” speaker, Gary McAuliffe said.
The issue has reached to the highest levels of lawmakers in South Carolina.
The South Carolina Attorney General, Alan Wilson sent a letter, after Representative Marvin Pendarvis requested a response from him.
The letter reads in part, “based upon our prior opinions, and the decisions of our courts, we believe a court would likely conclude that FOIA’s requirements for convening in executive session were not met.”
Representative Pendarvis said, “I believe the AG was correct in that, and I hope it serves as a notice to the district that you can’t keep operating like that.”
Moms for Liberty, who is accused of having negative influence on the board’s decisions like this one, gave News 2 a statement saying in part, “The schools answer to the elected school board and the school board answers to the voters. That’s democracy.”
The House Delegation talked about holding a special meeting in the near future to send a special letter to the governor, who is the only one in power to remove school board members.