A Staunton middle school teacher emailed parents via his work email to communicate about two city school board candidates.
Charles Nesmith, band teacher at Shelburne Middle School, “took disturbing actions to use school resources to attack me and Mrs. Hatter, both personally and politically. Mr. Nesmith used his school email and access to their database to contact a number of Staunton parents and voters for partisan political gain,” school board candidate John Wilson said in a letter September 23 to local and state officials, including Staunton Schools Superintendent Dr. Garett Smith and members of the Staunton School Board.
Wilson’s letter “claimed violations of school policy and misuse of public resources by a local middle school teacher.” Wilson “also asserts that the teacher misquotes him in an email to school parents sent for partisan political gains.” Wilson demands in his letter that local officials discipline Nesmith “while also reforming policies regarding the use of school resources for political advocacy.”
According to Smith, the “individual personnel matter” was “handled in accordance with school board policies.”
“The teacher has been and continues to be a dedicated and professional educator in Staunton City Schools, who has admitted that he made a mistake in judgment. He voluntarily offered to write Mr. Wilson and the other school board candidate a letter of apology, which both acknowledged they received. In the apology letter, the teacher stated his words ‘were not in any way representative of the thoughts and opinions of the superintendent, the board or faculty of our school,’” Smith said.
Smith added that Staunton Schools “respect individual employees’ First Amendment Free Speech Rights. Just because they are employees, including teachers, does not mean that their constitutional rights are diminished. Yet, the time and place and means of exercising those rights should be informed by our school board’s policies.”
Smith said that he believed appropriate action was taken and Staunton Schools consider the matter closed.
Wilson, according to a press release, is running for school board with the vision of a school board “that works with parents to guarantee a quality education that prepares the children of his community with the skills necessary to excel in a 21st century economy.”
The press release stated that Wilson attempted for three weeks to communicate with Nesmith about his email regarding Wilson and another school board candidate, Lisa Hatter. Early voting began September 23. Election Day is November 8.
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Rebecca Barnabi
