Police investigate death threats against DeKalb Schools leader
DeKalb County Schools Police are investigating death threats against Superintendent R. Stephen Green and his family, according to the leader of the school district.
Supt. Green tells FOX 5, the threats started after his district was thrown into the national spotlight following the publicized predicament of three employees leaving the district.
Green said he was told by officers the threats needed to be taken very seriously, and said he was told by officers, “We need to have 24-hour security around you, your wife and your home.” He tells FOX 5, police are continuing a criminal investigation into the ordeal.
Green said the district and its social media pages had also received numerous angry messages surrounding a website article involving former employees- a nurse and two teachers.
In a press release entitled, “Misleading news reports about DeKalb schools,” the district stated, “These former employees had been investigated by our school system for comments suggesting DeKalb students with immigrant backgrounds aced deportation. Unfortunately, these comments were publicly available to students and families and negatively impacted the employees’ effectiveness in their schools.”
“These former employees received full due process of law and school board regulations after allegations came to light of their inappropriate comments and actions toward students.
“Following fair and thorough school district investigations by the appropriate school principals, those principals and the regional superintendent of these employees unanimously recommended termination. All three employees provided written/oral comments and were afforded a full chance to rebut allegations and challenge any recommendations. All three voluntarily left the system without termination,” the statement read.
“They were inappropriate statements to make to students,” Green tells FOX 5, but could not elaborate further on what was specifically said to students. He said the employees were not investigated for holding certain political views.
Last week, the conservative news website World Net Daily published an article entitled, “School Teachers Fired For Pro-Trump Remarks,” which gained traction online, and claimed the reason for the employees’ departure involved their political views.
The writer and editor of the World Net Daily article, Leo Hohmann, released the following statement:
“I have been contacted by several members of the local media today informing me of Dr. Green’s displeasure with my article of Feb. 14 on WND.com. This was the first I’ve heard of any problems. He has not contacted me, nor has anyone from DeKalb County Schools reached out to me to ask for any corrections or retractions to this story, which to my knowledge is 100 percent accurate…
“Mr. Green’s attempts to slander me in the local media for reporting the truth about his policies suggest he is catching heat for trying to snuff out the First Amendment rights of every DeKalb County Schools employee. He is rightly embarrassed for having his anti-free speech policies exposed and now he is trying to lash out against the messenger who exposed him. Perhaps he would be better off to look in the mirror and think about changing his message,” Leo Hohmann said in his statement.