Look, I’m descended from lawyers. I don’t practice. But here’s what I see as the endgame for the LeRoy-Rivers Polk Schools fiasco.
The great $435/hour effect of hiring a law firm to “investigate” sexual harassment and whistleblower claims is to insulate both LeRoy and Rivers from easy dismissal. By easy dismissal, I mean not having write a check to each covered by my money that has a few zeroes in it.
I originally thought the absurd gloating video that LeRoy made declaring herself “fully exonerated” was foolish if she wanted to preserve her job. After reading interview details in The Ledger story this morning — and seeing the extent to which LeRoy is lawyered up — I’ve changed my mind.
She doesn’t think she’s keeping her job. But she’s going to make us fire her. She’s going to claim she’s the victim of false charges and that we’re all liable. Same with Rivers. He’s a whistleblower now.
You might say, at this point, “Wait, they’re both at will employees. We can fire them whenever we want.”
I’m not conversant with the specific provisions of both their contracts. I don’t know if LeRoy has a buyout. But I do think, in a normal situation, the School Board could vote to remove LeRoy over general concerns about her general awfulness. And it could let Rivers work out the string of his annual contract and not renew it.
But thanks to Wes Bridges, my School Board attorney, both LeRoy and Rivers now have a $435/hour investigation to point to in which LeRoy is formally cleared of legal wrongdoing and Rivers is said to act in good faith.
Consider this:
We have determined that none of conduct of the Superintendent Mr. Rivers alleges to have occurred within his Complaint constitutes a misfeasance or malfeasance or otherwise represents a violation of Board Policy.
And consider this:
We conclude that, despite our findings as to his allegations, Mr. Rivers did make a reasonable, good faith effort to determine the accuracy of the information he reported and that the report was not false to the best of his knowledge and belief.
Excuse me while I vomit.
Neither of these people have anything to lose, at this point. They’ve likely both ruined the rest of their careers with their idiocy. Neither of them are from here. They don’t care about this place or their reputations within it. Maturity, dignity, and honor do not seem like qualities they share. Which may explain why they couldn’t quit each other. They’re going to sit right where they are as long as they can keep getting paid. We’ve all seen this play out before.
When we try to fire them, which we’re going to have to do, because they’re not going to help, their lawyers will say, “Wait, you’re moving against people who were just cleared of wrongdoing — or judged a good faith whistleblower. This is wrongful, spiteful termination. We need to litigate this.”
Thanks, Wes.
I don’t know if Bridges was trying to help them with the investigation — or if his mania for information control and secrecy and incompetence got us to this point. I honestly don’t care. To me they’re both reasons to end his association with my School Board. Bridges seems to have long forgotten that the public is his client. He has not remotely served its interests in this sorry episode.
At the very least, Bridges and Hunt Berryman, who knew all about the toxicity of this relationship and these personalities a year ago, should offer to write the “please go away” check that Sniffen and Spellman P.A. has all but delivered to LeRivers. I’m sure Hunt and Bridges both have more money to spare than me — or most of the parents whose kids no one in this entire disaster seems to have given a single damn thought to.