Clay Johnson: Chariho Superintendent Fake-Lawyers a Threat, Fake-Media Backs Her Up
Publisher’s Note: In yet another tired act that is emblematic of the institutional problems we face across America, an unelected bureaucrat who believes she has the right to impose her will on everyone else, publicly pushes a made-up and false narrative, which in turn, is automatically supported by the allied fake news media. The two opinion pieces below represent views of concerned citizens in the Chariho RI school district.
MY VIEWS AFTER I RESIGNED FROM THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE (by Kathryn Colasante)
CHARIHO SUPERINTENDENT FAKE-LAWYERS HER WAY INTO IMPLICATING HERSELF (by Clay Johnson)
KATHRYN COLASANTE 12/27/24: At Chariho’s last school committee meeting, Superintendent Picard boldly inserted herself into school committee discussion in an attempt to prevent the tabling of the vote to elect a new chair until the last of the new school committee representatives was seated. This was occurring the very next day.
Being Richmond’s turn to take the important chair position, only added significance. From Richmond’s pool of members, the chair would be chosen. Being my last meeting as a Richmond member before my resignation took effect, voting that night would preclude my replacement from being one of the Richmond members considered for chair or from being considered for subcommittees that had been placed on the agenda.
While concerns over the exclusion of my replacement were raised, Picard inserted herself into the discussion with emphatic, threatening pronouncements that anyone who voted to table electing the chair would be “in violation of the law” and could be sued and would have to pay for their own legal defense.
Picard read from the Chariho Act: “Within ten (10) days after the election and certification of the members of the regional school district committee, said regional school district committee shall meet and organize by selecting one (1) of their number to be chairperson…”
Preemptively, Picard prefaced this biennial agenda item by reading this portion of the Chariho Act, a portion later used to try to coerce members to vote that night, and to make the case against tabling. All the while, the ten days Picard claimed the committee had to act within had already passed.
According to Picard’s interpretation, it was the superintendent and the interim chair Karen Reynolds who bore responsibility for not calling the meeting within the time frame. That fact notwithstanding, Picard and Reynolds attempted to impose on the school committee members a time frame they themselves had failed to impose upon themselves. Furthermore, this time frame historically has not been stringently followed.
The word ‘shall’ according to Black’s Law Dictionary can also be called out for its ambiguous nature. Black’s Law Dictionary lists five meanings of shall and one of those meanings listed is ‘may.’ According to Bar and Bench ‘shall’ does not have a singular firm meaning and is one of the most corrupted and litigated words in the language of the law.
Not unworthy of mention, the new Richmond School Committee representative who would have been egregiously excluded from consideration by failing to table the vote is a known fiscal and social conservative, while Picard and member Karen Reynolds are known fiscal and social liberals. So, there were possibly political repercussions to tabling or not tabling the vote.
School committee members Louzon and Chambers unfortunately cooperated with Picard’s misinformation and warnings to influence the committee to vote as they would have them. When the conservatives failed to acquiesce, Reynolds asserted, “So you are willing to break the law.” In doing so, they demonstrated a willingness to strain a gnat of pretentious legality to force the swallowing of a camel of injustice.
Kathryn Colasante, Former Chariho School Committee member
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CLAY JOHNSON 12/20/24: Here she goes again. Gina Picard, Chariho Superintendent, plays the “you’re all going to jail” card designed to secure a spending-friendly chair of “her” school committee. She not only lost the vote, she outed herself as a bully and a hack for the education mafia.
In a bizarre assertion, Picard threatens conservative school committee members with lawsuits as a result of their standard motion to table. Picard would have happily made the opposite case if it supported her band of elitist-liberals who are mercilessly ratcheting up taxes in Richmond and Hopkinton.
Greg Piccirilli, a school committee solicitor himself and member of the legal team at the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity, question’s Superintendent Picard’s misguided legal assertions and vapid threats.
Picard’s threat to conservatives: this was the LAST chance to vote for a chair before their 10-day clock expired. A clock set by the Chariho Act that started when the election results were certified on November 22 by the Rhode Island Board of Elections. If Picard had looked at a calendar, as she most assuredly did, she knew that the clock had already long since expired. So, there was no legal basis not to wait until the next meeting to elect a chair.
Moreover, had Picard’s wild threats been successful, she would have forced members of the school committee to vote for a chair they did not believe was in the public interest. This “forced” vote to meet a fake timeline, a deadline that had already passed, would have violated not only each school committee member’s oath of office, but also their first amendment right to vote.
In an egregious act of journalistic neglect, the Westerly Sun dutifully acted, once again, as the propaganda arm for the government bureaucrats. If the reporters for the Sun had watched the full meeting they would have seen that Picard admits, on camera, that the Chariho Act deadline had already expired. Of course, the certification date is also easily found on the board of elections website. So once again, the Westerly Sun demonstrates that it is the handmaiden of the entitled elitist left-wing establishment.
Superintendent Picard needs to quickly adjust to the new reality. She reports to the school committee, and the new school committee is going to promote and encourage academic performance while being responsible to the taxpayers. Picard is expected to present her new budget soon, we will see if she has learned anything
Clay Johnson lives in Richmond, Rhode Island and is a former school committee member and candidate.
