Melinda Anderson
BLYTHEWOOD – Tuesday night, Richland 2 Board Chairman Bill Fleming addressed the recent embarrassment brought on the District by Board member Melinda Anderson.
Reading from a prepared statement, Fleming said, “The Board considers themselves compromised” by the words and actions during and following the incident involving Melinda Anderson. In early October Anderson, in a District office meeting to discuss her grandson’s lack of playing time on the Westwood football field, was alleged in a Richland County Sheriff’s report to have said, “I’m so angry I just want to kill the coach and I have a gun.”
Superintendent Debbie Hamm and Human Resource Office Roosevelt Garrick support hearing the statement in the filed police report. Anderson denies making any such statement. Several weeks later a family friend was sent by Anderson to the fields to observe how the coach was handling practice. As in the first incident, charges were not filed.
Board member Chip Jackson said, “There are no winners in this situation.”
The censure is a public admonishment from the Board to express their disapproval for Anderson’s actions. The censure passed 5-2 with Anderson and Monica Elkins-Johnson voting against the measure. When asked to explain the meaning of the censure, Anderson responded, “I have no idea. I am finished with it. I have no comment . . . God is my witness.”
With the censure voted, the Board considers the matter resolved.
