School board members evading questions
Members of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education refused to answer questions about records detailing reports of sexual violence on its campuses, weeks after a WBTV investigation uncovered the existence of the records. Attorneys and spokesmen for CMS have claimed such records did not exist – including under oath in court proceedings – until a WBTV reporter obtained a copy of records detailing reported sexual violence between 2010 and 2015.
WBTV first requested the records in 2021 as part of its years-long investigation into how the district handles reported sexual violence. Those records are now at the center of a public records lawsuit the station brought against the school district. Only two members of the current school board were in elected office when the initial request was made. But the current board has discussed WBTV’s revelation and the records in a closed session. But the board has not made any public statement nor released more recent records.
A WBTV reporter emailed each board member four questions related to the records. No board member responded. When a WBTV crew tried to ask board members for comments in person before a recent school board meeting, the board members refused to answer.
Board member Lisa Cline said she couldn’t talk because she was getting ready for the board meeting. Board member Monty Witherspoon looked right at a reporter as he asked a question and then looked away as though he couldn’t hear the reporter. Board members Dee Rankin, Summer Nunn and Cline ducked under the dais after a reporter asked them questions.
As board members continue their silence, lawyers for the board have doubled down on their previous statements regarding the existence of records. Hope Root, an attorney for the board, wrote in an email to a lawyer for WBTV that a sworn statement from CMS General Counsel Andre Mayes claiming there were no records was “true and accurate.” Mayes herself has previously refused to answer questions about her sworn statement, saying there were no records detailing reports of sexual violence at CMS schools.
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