‘I will f--- you up,’ Richland 2 board member says on recording of meeting. Listen here
The State has obtained audio from a closed-door session of the Richland 2 school board meeting that resulting in a police report being filed against a board member for making threats against another.
In the four-minute recording, one board member uses profane language as she threatens school board chairwoman Teresa Holmes. A source present for the meeting confirmed the audio to The State.
As members of the school board met on April 28 at the Richland 2 Institute of Innovation in the Sandhill area, one board member became angry because she believed Holmes was laughing at her while she was speaking and told the chairwoman to “shut the f--- up,” according to the recording.
The board member is referred to as “Lashonda,” a probable reference to Lashonda McFadden.
Later on Wednesday, McFadden turned herself in at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center on a charge of threatening a public official.
McFadden’s comment led to a raucous exchange with other board members interjecting as the board member continues to go after Holmes.
“I will f--- you up,” McFadden can be heard saying.
“You threatened me,” Holmes said in response, while another voice on the recording can be heard saying, “That’s jail.” At one point, Holmes refers to McFadden as “a little girl.”
“Go file a complaint like you normally do,” McFadden then says. “If you think you’re going to continue to disrespect me, then I will catch your m-----f------ ass outside.”
“Do it,” Holmes said. “Do it.”
Another board member later said it’s unprofessional for Holmes to laugh while McFadden was speaking.
“You don’t know what I was laughing at,” Holmes said. “Are you in my head, ma’am?”
As the exchange back and forth continued, another voice could be heard saying “We’re in a building with students.”
“And? They deal with this every day,” one board member said.
The meeting, held out of the public eye in a closed-door executive session, was called to discuss safety and security measures in Richland 2 schools.
In the aftermath of the meeting, Holmes filed a report with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department about the confrontation. It describes the two main participants standing, with the aggressor moving toward the victim. The report describes the encounter being filmed, although only audio was made available to The State. The names of the participants were redacted in the police report made publicly available.
Richland 2 in northeastern Richland County has had contentious board meetings in the past. Previous school board meetings have erupted into shouting matches among board members. Last fall, three school board members walked out of a meeting, forcing the meeting to be canceled, The State reported previously.
In January, police got involved when Superintendent Barron Davis confronted a man attending a board meeting who got into a verbal disagreement with Davis’ wife, a Richland 2 teacher. A Richland County Sheriff’s Department incident report said two members of the public were placed on trespass notice by security and escorted from the building.
This story was originally published May 11, 2022 at 10:58 AM with the headline "‘I will f--- you up,’ Richland 2 board member says on recording of meeting. Listen here."
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