Fellow citizens of Fayette County, as a parent and former elementary school teacher, I was deeply dismayed, angered, and shocked by Leonard Presberg’s FaceBook Live mockery of parents who were voicing their concerns during the recent Fayette County Board of Education meeting.
The parents were speaking up about something that matters to them and impacts their children’s daily lives, but the topic of the concerns is irrelevant in regard to the impropriety of Mr. Presberg’s behavior.
Those parents, many of whom had never spoken at a school board meeting before and had waited a long time outside in the humid heat before nervously approaching the microphone, could be saying they were afraid of aliens invading and it would still be Presberg’s job to respectfully listen.
A teacher would deserve and expect to be fired for FB live mockery of a parent in any context. When parents come to us as educators, they often feel vulnerable about sharing their fears and worries regarding their children.
Sometimes those concerns may seem unimportant or ill-informed to the teacher, but a caring teacher will look for the heart of the parent’s concern and find a way to help without embarrassing the parent or child, especially on a public platform.
How can any parent be comfortable sharing their concerns to anyone in the school system if Presberg’s unethical behavior is tolerated?
Presberg’s outrageous behavior brings up several questions:
Who has oversight of the local school board?
Can Mr. Presberg be forced to resign and if so, how?
What damage to the reputation of our wonderful school system will result from this — especially if this becomes a national news item before appropriate action is taken to resolve this?
It is time for us as parents and citizens to pay attention to what is going on at our school board meetings. They are always recorded and posted here: Public Relations / 2021 Board Meeting Live Stream Recordings (fcboe.org).
Edna King
Vice Chairman of Legislation and Education
Fayette County Republican Party
Fayetteville, Ga.
Leonard Presberg
August 23 at 9:24 PM
Sorry. I was going to stop. But this speaker is going to demonstrate that humans exhale CO2.
(Posted while 2 ladies demonstrated with a CO2 monitor that wearing a mask produces CO2 levels well above recommended safe levels in a matter of minutes)
August 23 at 8:40 PM
Speaker 30. BINGO. Virus particle size.
(As a speaker pointed out that N95 masks have a warming label that they will not for a barrier to viruses as they do not stop particles that small).
Mrs. King, as the “Vice Chairman of Legislation and Education”, shouldn’t you know who has oversight over the local BOE and whether or not Mr. Presberg can be forced to resign?
The time for us to pay attention at school board meetings has been here since the meetings started, but I guess it took someone you don’t agree with posting quotes from a public meeting to get you involved.
But what else would the “Vice Chairman of Education” spend her time on?
Could somebody post some items from Mr. Presberg’s Facebook feed? I’m not on Facebook so I’m in the unfortunate position of having to take others’ at their word that either the posts were either mockery or verbatim of what the parents said. I hope everyone forming an opinion on this understands that typewritten quotes from a live, emotionally-charged event inherently don’t convey tone or context, and readers can see them as either sarcastic, innocuous, or something else.
The quotes are published in an article here at the Citizen titled “Board of Education member Presberg puts on Facebook show ridiculing dozens of parents and public speakers”.
Frankly, its not what he said. It’s the fact that he divided his attention at all. A School Board member has a solemn responsibility to give his or her full attention to members of the public who address the board. It is part of his role in facilitating the right to petition government. That he was childish in his conduct only adds to that.
If Presburg were smart, he’d perform a mea culpa as soon as possible so this can go away.
Trump voters say what? lol sit this one out maybe
Clinton voters say what? Get back in line… Trump is a saint compared to most Democrat politicians.
lmao imagine defending a reality tv star who built his brand on firing celebrities and hurling insults on twitter and thinking you have a leg up here. Too funny
I thought the appeal of Trump was that he was NOT a politician. Don’t seem right to compare him to any politician since he was chosen to not act like one.
Reality tv star is an appealing trait for president? I have to be in the wrong timeline….
Hypocrisy, thy name is Edna King. In some strange universe, it is anathema for a local school board representative to type out exact quotes from citizens in real time on social media while it is perfectly acceptable to mock a Gold Star Father or the disabled. Edna is working that gnat strainer while swallowing a camel.
The idea that a representative from the Republican party has the gall to accuse anyone of moral turpitude after imposing the most morally bankrupt president ever on our great country is laughable.
This truth is beyond stranger than fiction; it demands denial and stretching the boundaries of credibility to epic proportions.
The Republican Party never imposed Bill Clinton.
Try again Andy. Bill Clinton wasn’t known for mocking his opponents or anyone else. He also publicly apologized for his affair.
If that’s all you’ve got, just pack it up and admit that the king of mockery is hardly Presberg.