‘How about shutting up, lady’: Augusta County School Board chair under fire after outburst

Augusta County School Board chair Nick Collins is getting heat for an outburst directed at a woman who had been heckling him throughout a candidates forum on Monday night.

“How about shutting up, lady,” Collins told the woman, from his seat on the dais at the forum, which was held at the Augusta County Government Center.

A report in the News Leader offered that the woman and a man seated next to her had directed comments at Collins throughout the forum, to the point that the event’s moderator stopped the forum several times to ask members of the audience to show respect for the candidates as they were speaking.

After Collins’ outburst, the woman continued to speak until a sheriff’s deputy intervened to restore order.

We first heard about the incident on Wednesday from a reader who attended the forum.

“Nick Collins lost his cool, which is not unusual, I might add,” the reader wrote in an email to AFP, including a clip of the outburst.

Collins, who has served on the School Board since 2000, is seeking a seventh term representing the North River District.

The report in the Leader notes that he has been asked by one board member, Tim Simmons, to resign his position as chair, telling the board in an email that Collins’ behavior “does not align with the conduct and professionalism we strive to uphold as school board members.”

A second board member, Mike Lawson, called Collins’ interaction with the woman at the forum “unacceptable.”

“It is not the behavioral representation to be portrayed to our constituents by any member of the school board, especially the board chair,” Lawson said, according to the report in the Leader.

At this writing, Collins has resisted the pressure to step down.