Local residents say Spearman, the South Carolina Superintendent of Education and CCSSO president, resorted to name calling in a town where greater than 90 percent of the population is African American, after the majority of attendees walked out of her meeting.
By Natasha Gordon
TIMMONSVILLE/SOUTH CAROLINA/LDGWire/March 22, 2022, Residents of the tiny town of Timmonsville are outraged over the behavior of S.C. state superintendent of education Molly Spearman after three quarters of them walked out of a meeting she attempted to conduct on March 17, 2022. Despite the fact that the South Carolina code of laws dictates that Spearman was to conduct monthly meetings with the Florence 4 Board and community stakeholders when she declared a state of emergency in the district in 2018, the March 17, 2022, meeting is the first and only of its kind hosted by Spearman in Timmonsville. She previously held a virtual town hall in September of 2020.
Residents say they don’t understand why Spearman came to their town flanked by an army of law enforcement officers representing at least four agencies. According to multiple reports, the Timmonsville police, the Florence County Sheriff’s department, the South Carolina Highway Patrol and SC SLED had officers at the meeting which was called by Spearman to give an update on what she calls a consolidation, but the citizens say is a hostile takeover. “I am really just trying to understand why Ms. Spearman would come to our tiny town with such a large police presence. I mean it is just crazy. They were stationed all over our town. We passed by a lot of them going to the school for the meeting.”, Katie Hewitt said.
Citizens say they are in shock. “I have never seen anything like this before, and I have lived in this town all of my life. Molly Spearman is not the president of the United States, and she is not Beyonce, so I really don’t understand her point in doing what she did. She must be some kind of delusional to have convinced herself she is that important. And I personally would like to know who is going to pay for Ms. Spearman’s stunt? I guess the taxpayers will be on the hook for it.”, Jonathan McAllister said.
According to a number of people who attended the meeting, Spearman did not give any new updates, she only rehashed many of the same things she said in 2020. In addition, attendees said they were told they would be allowed to ask questions, only to discover that the index cards they were given to write their questions on was a ruse. “I think they just handed out those cards to make it look good, and to keep us there. Molly Spearman doesn’t care anything about what we think. Her only concern is to conquer and destroy. She already had the questions she intended to answer included in her presentation, and we could clearly see them on the screen, she just thought we would all be too stupid to notice. People here are tired of Spearman’s lies and deceptions. That is why people walked out.”, Sylvia Curry said.
Citizens say that Spearman made it clear to them just how she feels about them and their town. “The woman completely lost it when the majority of the crowd walked out on her. Ms. Spearman engaged in sophomoric and unprofessional behavior. She called my friends and neighbors hooligans and the spokesperson for our school board a vengeful person. It seems to me that Ms. Spearman was the one who evoked the spirit of Nemesis, who according to Greek Mythology is the goddess of retribution and revenge. Nemesis was known for being remorseless, and I honestly don’t believe Ms. Spearman is remorseful about anything she has done, to anyone here in Timmonsville.”, Taylor Shein said.
Other attendees say that Ms. Spearman went off into a rant where she referred to the citizens that walked out as “those people”, and she started talking about how they reported her for child abuse and called OSHA on her. “It was really a wild scene. Her anger got the best of her, and she really did lose control of herself. It was certainly not the type of behavior you would expect from someone who holds a position that will influence millions of children nationwide.” Elijah Johnson said. “We were all trying to figure out why she felt the need to bring her alleged reports of child abuse and OSHA up in a meeting where she was supposed to be discussing the so-called consolidation of our school district. She even went so far as to say that the reports filed against her were affecting her children. Well, what about how her actions and the decisions she has made are affecting our children? “Johnson questioned.
According to reports, one citizen told Spearman that her comments were demeaning, and she in turn apologized for her behavior, however parents and other concerned citizens believe Spearman meant exactly what she said. “I was always told that there is nothing that passes through your lips that isn’t in your heart. Spearman has no respect for any of us because she believes we are poor, Black and lacking intelligence. She has treated us like animals, and she could care less that she is setting up our children to become statistics. She felt comfortable saying what she said in a high school gym half full of Black people. Anyone can spit out a fake apology when they get called out.”, Brendaca Rogers said.
Attendees also reported that Spearman was approached by a former basketball coach who told her that she might as well have called Timmonsville’s citizens the N-word. Witnesses to this encounter described the coach as being a lifelong resident of Timmonsville. They also described him as being Caucasian. Most residents agree, no one outside of their community will ever know about Spearman’s outburst and behavior, because they say she and her team have done a masterful job of suppressing the news.
Many of the citizens assert that people in the media are afraid of repercussions if they tell the truth about what is happening to their town. “We might as well be living in China, North Korea, or over in Putin’s Russia. Nothing gets printed in our local newspapers or seen on our local television stations without the approval of the politicians in charge. The people who work in the media around here are scared. We can’t even count on our Black newspaper to tell the complete truth. We have no voice. There was not one thing said about all of the law enforcement Spearman came in here with on the news. One news station described the walkout as one of a few dozen people. They really misled the public as far as that is concerned. None of them reported on Spearman calling us hooligans either.”, Joshua Davis said.
Timmonsville’s citizens say that Spearman has treated them with indifference since she declared a state of emergency in 2018. They say that they gave her the benefit of the doubt in the beginning because they believed her when she said that she was doing what was in the best interest of the children at that time. They also say Spearman led them to believe that she was going to return the district back over to the board once they had met all of her stipulations.
“Molly Spearman has no relationship at all with the truth. That makes her a deceitful and dangerous individual. She never had any intention of doing any of the things she promised. She took from us instead. As a matter of fact, there are a couple of educators who enter the doors of the buildings my tax dollars helped to pay for. These women are so confident they will get promotions after everything is said and done; they are actually making it known in town that the plan to close our schools has been in the works for five years. That certainly was news to those of us who live here, but I suppose when you don’t live here, and you only come into our community to collect a paycheck, you really don’t care anything about our children or our town.”, Ramona Johnson said.
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