Thanks to my friend at POW in CA, I have additional information for you regarding the video I posted previously under the headline, “Your Taxes at Work”. The teacher in the video is Ms Diantha Harris, who is employed at Mary McArthur Elementary School in Fayetteville, North Carolina. For those of you not familiar with the military, that school is located near Fort Bragg.
As the daughter of a military veteran, I’m completely outraged at her treatment of that poor little girl. I know at least a portion of the fears that little girl must be going through, as I saw my father being sent off on military duty many, many times as a young child. To have a teacher ream into her like that, it’s reprehensible. There is no excuse for that behavior, none whatsoever. In my opinion, no amount of re-training can ever make up for what she’s done in this video. But what makes this worse, is she knew she was being video taped. What has she done outside the scope of a camera? What else have these poor children been subjected to under her tutelage?

Thankfully the school superintendent is aware of the situation, has already begun an investigation, and has pledged to take “appropriate action.” I hope that “appropriate action” is having that woman fired. No other consequence would satisfy the scope of her offense.

If you’d like to see what the superintendent had to say, click here. I’ll also be hosting a copy of the response, just for the sake of archiving it. To see it, click “more”.

CCS Headline News – Superintendent’s Response to YouTube

I was shocked when I saw the clip of an interaction between a Cumberland County Schools teacher and her students as posted on YouTube. While neutral discussion of the political process is appropriate, at no time, particularly with elementary students, should a teacher infuse his/her political views into the discussion. Most disconcerting was the military slant that made its way into this discussion. We are a military community, serving over 15,000 military students and their families. We value the sacrifices, not only of the military parents but also those of their families.

We believe that military children are our children, military spouses are many of our employees, and military service men and women are our heroes. We proudly serve our military children and have received national awards for our support of military families.

I was particularly disturbed to see the uncomfortable position in which our children were placed due to the inappropriate actions of one of our teachers. Please be assured that the actions exhibited in this video are not consistent with the vision of the CCS. Moreover, the actions of one teacher do not represent the 7000 employees in our organization.

Once the video was brought to my attention, I immediately launched an investigation. Personnel laws prevent me from releasing information regarding individual employees and personnel action taken. I can assure you that upon completion of the investigation, I will take appropriate action.
Dr. William Harrison
CCS’ Superintendent