Onslow County Schools Continuing Education Credit Requirements
The Onslow County Board of Education has voted on how to handle the actions of a sitting member.
The school board has unanimously voted to move forward with the process of "amotion" in attempting to remove Eric Whitfield from the Onslow County Board of Education. Whitfield was elected to the board in 2020 following a controversial campaign during which he faced allegations of making racist and derogatory comments about minorities.
He was also convicted of one count of cyberstalking former Onslow County Schools employee Kelli Muse on April 7 of this year.
More:After Eric Whitfield conviction, what are options for the Onslow Board of Education?
The board's litigation committee met Thursday morning preceding a special board meeting to receive and review the reported recommendations of the committee. Chairman Bob Williams said they received the report and recommendations from their outside council, and were ready to make those recommendations to the board.
"May I have a motion to adopt the resolution of the Onslow County Board of Education direct issue, and to petition for amotion to board member Eric Whitfield," Williams said in the meeting.
The resolution was read, and the board unanimously approved to move forward with "amotion."
An "amotion" is, according to the resolution, "available to the Onslow County Board of Education to remove a member of the board for just cause, and whereas an endeavor to remove a sitting member of a board of education should be only undertaken to address serious misconduct and unethical behavior."
The resolution continued to note that the Onslow BOE currently has no policy procedure or guidelines to govern an amotion proceeding, and whereas the board has both the authority and obligation to act when confronted with allegations of serious misconduct and unethical behavior on the part of one of its members.
Bob Joyce, Professor of Public Law and Government at the N.C. School of Government of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, said amotions are rare.
Whitfield did not attend the meetings.
"I did contact Mr. Whitfield by cellphone, and we had a conversation about today's proceedings and I did notify him to be here at 9 o'clock this morning for the litigation committee," said OCS Superintendent Barry Collins. "Not as a participant on the litigation committee, but rather the audience, and he did verify at that time that he would be here."
Reached for comment by The Daily News, Whitfield only said "I guess Republicans hate free speech."
Williams said in part of this process, they will contact a contract with a hearing officer to conduct the hearings. He has already spoken to board council, Alex Erwin, about those proceedings.
The board's outside council, Poyner Spruill, LLP, presented its investigation findings in the litigation committee meeting Thursday morning. Firm attorneys Rebecca Williams and Grace Pennerat conducted the investigation.
"We conducted an outside, external, independent investigation into two allegations," council said. "Allegation one, complaints of harassment by a board member, Russell Eric Whitfield, against an OCS employee Kelli Muse and community member Kristin Greer.
"And allegation two, allegations that board member Melissa Oakley acted together with Kelli Muse to allege charges of harassment against board member Russell Eric Whitfield and to file civil and criminal charges against Mr. Whitfield for cyberstalking."
Council said it began its investigation in early February, and reviewed more than 5,500 documents; including, emails, videos, social media posts and text messages. It also interviewed eight individuals.
However, council said Whitfield declined to be interviewed on several occasions, stating he was legally prohibited from discussing the matter with anyone until April 10, 2023.
"The documentation that we have seen, we have not seen that prohibition, but I do not know what was told to Mr. Whitfield in court or by the judge," council said.
The council said, regarding its findings on allegation one, Whitfield personally met with Muse to investigate her complaints regarding the CTE department at OCS. It also found Whitfield and Muse's relationship deteriorated, resulting in both of them posting videos online about their experiences with each other.
Council said that in some of the videos, Whitfield uses harsh language to refer to both Muse and Greer. He also authored two books available for purchase on Amazon about Muse.
"He also posted several videos on YouTube about Mrs. Muse, Mrs. Greer and presumably, Ms. Kylene Rose, another OCS employee," council said.
Their investigation also revealed no evidence that Melissa Oakley worked with Muse in any capacity to allege and file charges or claims against Whitfield.
"We found that Mr. Whitfield violated Onslow County BOE policy 2120, which is the Code of Ethics for School Board Members," council said. "More specifically, Mr. Whitfield failed to uphold the integrity and independence of the board member's office, and acted with impropriety in the exercise of the board's and the board member's official duties."
They added that Whitfield did not model civility to students, employees and all elements of the community as required by that policy.
"He did not refrain from investigating or attempting to resolve complaints personally, he did not avoid being placed in a position of conflict of interest, and he took private action that compromises the board administration," council said.
"Mr. Whitfield's activity on social media, including the posting of numerous YouTube videos about Kelli Muse and Kristin Greer where Mr. Whitfield used derogatory and insulting language, clearly violates the Onslow County Board of Education's Code of Ethics for School Board Members."
They added that he used profane language and reenacted court hearings in some of said videos.
Council said Whitfield also violated policy 2122, Role of Board Members in Handling of Complaints, when he met with Muse in October to discuss her systemic concerns aboutOCS.
He did not refer her to the correct administration as required in the policy.
Reporter Morgan Starling can be reached at mstarling@gannett.com
Source: https://www.jdnews.com/story/news/2022/05/26/onslow-school-board-move-forward-trying-remove-board-member/9943754002/
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