Louisiana Teacher Handcuffed After Speaking On Pay Raises: Video

ABBEVILLE, LA — A teacher who was ruled out of order by the Vermillion Parish school board president when she asked about teacher pay and administrative raises was handcuffed and led from the school building Monday, according to video from the scene. It shows the teacher, Deyshia Hargrave, screaming that she had been pushed to the ground by a deputy city marshal during a brief struggle.

Patch reached out to Hargrave, and an individual who answered the phone at Rene Rost Middle Schools, where she is an English language arts teacher, said she was not publicly commenting on the incident. The school’s superintendent, Jerome Puyau, also was not immediately available for comment. The Abbeville city marshal’s office said no one was available for comment.

But local news reports say that though the teacher was booked at the Abbeville city jail, she won’t face charges.

Hargrave, who has bonded out of jail, spoke during a portion of the school board meeting set aside for public comments, KATC-TV reported. She said that if administrators received pay raises and teachers and support staff did not, it would be "a slap in the face."

School board president Anthony Fontana at one point ruled her “out of order” and the city marshal, the school resource officer, asked Hargrave to leave the room. She did, but was handcuffed in the hallway after a brief skirmish with the officer, who can be heard on the video telling her to “stop resisting.”

It’s not clear if the officer was acting on his own, or if he was directed to place Hargrave under arrest for being forbidden and resisting an officer. The officer could make that decision without direction, KATC said.

The incident led one school board member, Laurie LeBlanc, to call out the way “females are treated in here in Vermillion Parish.” LeBlanc said she had never seen a man removed from the room.

Photo and video via The Associated Press