Hanover County Board of Supervisors Chair Angela Kelly-Wiecek began Wednesday’s board meeting by addressing an influx of questions from Hanover residents about removing a school board member, following a letter from the Hanover NAACP urging the action.
“Our role here is to appoint someone,” Kelly-Wiecek said. “Once that person is appointed, it really is a court process for removals.”
A quote from Hanover County School Board member Johnny Redd in a Times-Dispatch article on Tuesday caused a groundswell among some Hanover residents.
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In the statement, Redd called Hanover NAACP President Patricia Hunter-Jordan an “angry African American lady.”
The comment was in response to an open letter from the Hanover NAACP urging the county board of supervisors to “review and reconsider” the appointment of some school board members, including Redd.
His statement in full read, “Have you done any research on the source of this letter? Does this letter represent the views of the Hanover NAACP or the views of an angry African American lady who holds the title of president of that organization? Check it out — do a little research on Pat Hunter-Jordan — that could result in an interesting story for a truth-seeking investigative reporter. I will not be making any further comment.”
Hunter-Jordan addressed the board of supervisors at Wednesday’s meeting.
“I come here this afternoon with a smile on my face, and I hope that reflects that I am not an angry Black woman, which I was called yesterday by someone that you placed on our School Board,” Hunter-Jordan said. “I was elected as president of the Hanover NAACP. Mr. Redd was appointed by four people.”
She continued on to request that the School Board receive training that includes learning how to be respectful and show integrity. She also asked the board to begin appointing school board members who will reflect Hanover County’s diverse population.
Hunter-Jordan’s comments were followed by several others who spoke out against Redd.
“The language that was uttered by a certain gentleman about [Hunter-Jordan] is a slap in the face to Ms. Jordan, a slap in the face to my wife, to my two daughters, to people who look like me,” one resident said.
According to Kelly-Wiecek, the process to remove a school board member requires a majority of the county board of supervisors to petition a circuit court. The circuit court would then need to make a finding of removal, which generally would involve some sort of wrongdoing or malfeasance.
“[It] is not an action that this board may summarily take,” she said Wednesday.
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The NAACP letter said that Redd “delivered a message of prejudice, unprofessional zealotry, and ignorance of the needs of a diverse public school division” in an interview with the Times-Dispatch in May, before he was appointed to the school board. In the May interview, Redd said he wanted to focus on education instead of “promoting social change that is illogical, immoral and/or ungodly.”
Mechanicsville Supervisor Canova Peterson, who appointed Redd in late May, told the Times-Dispatch on Wednesday that the NAACP letter is filled with innuendo, and he is not reconsidering Redd’s appointment.
“The full board appointed him, and the full board would have to be the one to remove him, but that can only happen for cause,” Peterson said. “Agreeing or disagreeing with his position or vote is not legitimate cause.”