This Teacher Questioned The Superintendant's $39,000 Raise In Pay And Was Forcibly Arrested For It

Not enough pay for teachers

If you did not know, a teacher's day does not end when the final bell rings. They spend most evenings and weekends planning lessons and grading their student's assignments. What makes this job so difficult is that most teachers have not had any raise in pay in years. In fact, some have had to take a cut in pay when their school board tells them there is just not enough money to pay them normally. They can either take the cut or find a new job.

Pay raise

Louisiana teacher, Deyshia Hargrave, found out that Vermilion Parish school's superintendent, Jerome Puyau, was going to receive a $38,000 raise, she was upset and made her feelings known at a meeting about his contract.

A teacher's starting salary is around $39,000 in the United States. His pay raise could be used to hire another staff member to help with overflowing classes instead of padding his pocket. This increase for Puyau would take his salary from $190,000 to $228,000.

A slap in the face

Hargrave said while questioning Puyau's raise in salary, "I feel like it’s a slap in the face of all the teachers, cafeteria workers, and any other support staff. We work very hard with very little to maintain the salaries that we have."

Footage of the incident shows Hargrave also saying, "As I’ve been teaching the last few years, I’ve seen class sizes grow enormously. You’re making our job even more difficult. At the top, that’s not where kids learn, it’s in the classrooms."

Check out the footage

She also says, "And those teachers, like myself, are not getting a dime and that’s unspeakable." You can see the whole scene transpire in this video.

Hargrave can be seen remaining quite calm while making a passionate statement in a clear and concise manner even though the board shut her down for even having the gall to question the raise even though that was exactly what the meeting was about.

Removal

A member of security was sent in to remove Hargrave from the room. "You’re going to leave or I’m going to remove you," the officer said.

"Are you serious?" a shocked Hargrave replied. She continues to ask the board if it was against policy to stand while speaking to them. That is when the guard grabs her arm.

Complying

Hargrave chose to go ahead and leave the room. Immediately, other teachers began to complain about how she was being treated unfairly. Other members of the staff could be seen leaving as well in protest. But, the unthinkable happens in the hallway. Once the video taker makes his way to the hallway, we can see Hargrave down on the ground being forced into handcuffs. People can be heard saying, "What are you doing?" to the officer.

Resisting?

The officer keeps telling her to stop resisting while Hargrave, who was clearly upset, says, "I am not. You just pushed me to the floor." The officer escorted Hargrave out of the building all because she had the audacity to ask a question. For shame!

Gee, thanks!

Hargrave ended up spending several hours in police custody before being granted bail on two charges, "remaining after being forbidden" and resisting an officer. Superintendent Puyau says that the school board has no intention of pressing charges against Hargrave.

Justice for Hargrave

There are a bunch of organizations who are actively seeking justice for Hargrave, who was "Teacher of the Year" back in 2016, including the Louisiana Association of Educators who have released a statement about the incident.

"As an organization that advocates for the dedicated school employees of Louisiana, we firmly denounce the mistreatment of Ms. Hargrave, a loving parent and dedicated teacher serving the students of Vermilion Paris."