By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
No apology from BOE member for 'sexist' comment
Remark made at April 26 meeting while discussing transfer of Gamble-Hilton
Hill and Wagner
Bulloch County Board of Education members Maurice Hill, left, and Cheri Wagner

At last week's Bulloch County Board of Education meeting, board member Cheri Wagner said she had been very offended by a remark that another member, Maurice Hill, made to her at a previous meeting.

A third member, Steve Hein, then asked Hill to apologize for the remark, which Hein said members of the school system's human resources staff and legal counsel identified as sexist. Hill did not apologize.

During her public remarks Thursday, Wagner said one question had been posed to her repeatedly over the last few weeks.

"I've been asked how did I not lose my temperament when what I consider to be a very offensive, inappropriate and a personal attack was launched my way," Wagner said.

She then made further remarks about a need for board members, clergy, educators and community leaders to be role models.

"So to that extent, yes, I was shocked and offended by the comment, 'I'm not reprimanding you, you've got your husband and daddy for that,'" Wagner said. "However, I will continue to work with each and every board member, collectively, speaking as a whole for the students."

Wagner never referred to Hill by name, but Hein did a few minutes later. The remark they referred to occurred two weeks earlier, during the April 26 board meeting.

April 26 context

At that meeting, supporters of keeping Dr. Evelyn "Bonnie" Gamble-Hilton as principal at Langston Chapel Middle School packed the room, and representatives of the group spoke to the board before members began a discussion around the table.  Hill then made a motion to intervene in Superintendent Charles Wilson's decision to transfer Gamble-Hilton to Southeast Bulloch Middle School, where she would be an assistant principal but with the same salary she would have got as principal.

"So I'd like to make that motion, that we do intervene at this time and reconsider the evidence and the things at hand to try to resolve the issue at Langston Chapel Middle School," Hill said. "That is my motion as a board member."

Board member Glennera Martin, participating by phone, seconded the motion, which was later tabled on a 5-2 vote.

Wagner, looking down the table at Hein, asked something, inaudible in available recordings.

"I think we can speak up in front of everybody," Hill said.

"Thank you, Mr. Hill," Wagner said. "My point was I think we need to consult parliamentary procedure."

Hill said he thought legal counsel needed to be present for that, leading to comments between Hein and Hill about who could have asked the board attorney to attend, and that it hadn't been done.

After further questions from Hill and Wagner, Hill restated his motion.

"What does 'intervene' mean?" Wagner asked.

"I think the board needs to; I think …," Hill began. (The ellipse here, as elsewhere in this exchange, represents a remark trailing off or being interrupted by another board member.)

"Please, if you reprimand me one more time!" Wagner said.

"I wasn't reprimanding you. You've got your husband and your daddy to do that," Hill said.

There were some expressions like, "Whew!" and a little laughter from some in the crowd.

"I'm just being …," Hill continued. "If you can't understand what I'm saying, maybe that's the problem right now. You can't understand."

Then he restated his motion again, and the board went on in its discussion.

Hein's request

Two weeks later, Thursday evening, Hein followed Wagner's comments with remarks of his own calling for changes in board procedure which he said were in the interest of civility and accountability. He had announced he would also make a request.

"So to that end, Mrs. Wagner, to what you were saying, I would request board member Maurice Hill that you, since the remark was made in public, that conversely in public that you would make an apology to fellow board member Cheri Wagner."

"I don't think I was reprimanding her," Hill said. "I didn't say it like that."

Hein said, "If you don't feel you did it, regardless of our own H.R. department here feels that that was the case, or that legal felt that that was the case, are you telling me that we just merely don't have to feel something?"

"Maybe I was offended by the way that … . Maybe I was offended that I didn't really know what the motion meant and the law, but I accepted it," Hill said.

"You're offended because of your own ignorance that you don't know what the motion is?" Hein said.

"Are you calling me ignorant? … I did not state that," Hill said. "I said maybe I was offended that it was said that I didn't know what the motion meant."

"Well, I think we're deviating again and I think you've answered the question," Hein said. "You're not going to despite it being asked of, or said that it was, quite frankly, a sexist remark."

Reiterating that the school system's human resources department and legal counsel considered the remark sexist, Hein asked Hill if he then, "as a cleric," was saying that he was not going to apologize.

"I don't feel I made a sexist remark," Hill said.

"That's all I need to know," Hein said. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Hill said.

In a weekend email exchange with the reporter, Hill said that he was not contacted by any H.R. staff member or legal counsel. He questioned Hein's role in voicing the complaint and said the concern was not brought to him by the superintendent or board chair before the meeting.

"That (would) have been the proper channels I would think, to notify the chairman," Hill wrote.

He said he had felt that Hein and Wagner were using "harassing tactics" in questioning his motion at the time.

"No apologies at this time," Hill wrote.

Hein was not approached by H.R. staff or legal counsel but asked their perception of the remark after first asking Superintendent Wilson for permission, Hein said Monday.

Employee perception

"From my discussions with legal counsel and with H.R., it does qualify as a sexist statement," Wilson said Monday.

He does not know how "actionable" it is from a legal standpoint, he said.

"The other thing is, I have had multiple employees make statements to me that they were offended and demeaned by the statement that Mr. Hill made," Wilson said.

Video of the meetings can be found on the school system website at www.bulloch.k12.ga.us/boardlive.

Herald reporter Al Hackle may be reached at (912) 489-9458.

Sign up for the Herald's free e-newsletter