Public Radio for the Piedmont and High Country
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

GCS Looks At Safety Protocols After Receiving Vitriolic Messages

Guilford County Schools Superintendent Dr. Sharon Contreras prepares to give her report during a board of education meeting on June 17, 2021. Screenshoot: KERI BROWN/WFDD

Guilford County Schools is discussing changes to safety protocols for board meetings. This comes after protests over access and a string of vitriolic emails.

The GCS Board of Education meetings have been closed for in-person public comment since early in the pandemic. Instead, comments can be submitted via email. Some community members including a group called Take Back Our Schools want the meetings to reopen. Several rallies have been held to voice concerns about this issue.

District officials say protestors banged on boardroom windows during a June 10 meeting and would not leave the grounds until the Greensboro Police Department was called.

The district has also received numerous emails and calls from people about other things including school safety, and where the district stands on critical race theory. Some messages contain profanity and other offensive language that targets Superintendent Sharon Contreras and other staff.

Winston McGregor, the vice chair of the board, says there's a lot of misleading information circulating online.

"What was concerning about the escalation of a couple of weeks ago was an increase in emails, in the tone of the emails," says McGregor. 

District officials say additional law enforcement will be in place at school board meetings moving forward. Some of the emails have also been turned over to local law enforcement to investigate.

The Guilford County Board of Education will reopen for in-person public meetings on July 13. Nora Carr, the district's chief of staff, says a new process for the public comment sessions will be announced before then.

Follow WFDD's Keri Brown on twitter @kerib_news

Keri Brown is a multi-award winning reporter and host at 88.5 WFDD. She has been honored with two regional Edward R. Murrow awards for her stories about coal ash, and was named the 2015 radio reporter of the year by the Radio Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas (RTDNAC).Although she covers a variety of topics, her beats are environmental and education reporting.Keri comes to the Triad from West Virginia Public Broadcasting, where she served as the Chief Bureau Reporter for the Northern Panhandle. She produced stories for the state's Public Television and Radio programs and was honored by the West Virginia Associated Press Broadcasters Association for her feature and enterprise reporting.She also served as an adjunct instructor at Wheeling Jesuit University and Bethany College in West Virginia. She worked with the Center for Educational Technologies in Wheeling, WV, and other NASA centers across the country to develop several stories about the use of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) concepts in the classroom.Keri's journalism career began at WTRF-TV 7 in Wheeling. She worked in several roles at the station, including the head assignment editor. She also was a field producer and assignment manager at WPGH-TV Fox 53 in Pittsburgh.Keri is a graduate of Ohio University. When she's not in the studio or working on a story, she enjoys watching college football with her family, cooking, and traveling.Keri is always looking for another great story idea, so please share them with her. You can follow her on Twitter @kerib_news.

Support quality journalism, like the story above,
with your gift right now.

Donate