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Jul 20, 2023

City school board censures one of its own

Facebook posting depicting violence against LGBTQ community spurs action Moore A member of the Mount Airy Board of Education has been publicly censured, apparently over his social media posting

Facebook posting depicting violence against LGBTQ community spurs action

Moore

A member of the Mount Airy Board of Education has been publicly censured, apparently over his social media posting showing a figure dressed in red, white and blue kicking another in rainbow colors symbolizing the LGBTQ movement.

That image first appeared on the Facebook page of Randy Moore last week, leading to a special called meeting of the city school board Monday night.

Moore is a U.S. Army veteran who was appointed to the seven-member body in January 2021.

After Monday night’s special meeting, the Board of Education issued a statement regarding the situation directed toward the community, although it did not specifically cite the image of the rainbow-colored figure being kicked in the midsection.

It still appeared on Moore’s Facebook page as of Wednesday afternoon.

“The Mount Airy City Schools Board of Education disavows and disapproves of Mr. Randy Moore’s recent social media posts,” the statement reads.

“We believe as a board that member Randy Moore fell short of clearly articulated expectations for members of the Mount Airy City Schools Board of Education, which is why we took the extraordinary step of a public censure,” it says.

A censure is an expression of formal, severe disapproval — or reprimand — of a public official’s conduct, which also has occurred in bodies such as Congress. While it does publicly condemn a member’s behavior, a censure typically does not include that person being expelled from office.

“As elected officials who serve a public body, we encourage free expression of opinion among our members, but we ask for civility and integrity in all public discourse,” the board’s statement continues. “Board members must model the behavior we expect of students and employees.”

The statement further focuses on the issue of how Moore’s social media actions reflect on the group as a whole:

“As a board, we want to remind the school community one member does not act on behalf of the whole — our legal duty is to take action together, as a board.”

The document issued by school officials additionally refers to their desire to distance themselves from Moore’s social media presence.

“Hopefully, this brings some measure of reassurance to members of our community who are concerned that one member’s biases might impact school district policies and procedures,” the statement reads.

“This is simply not the case.”

Moore responds

When contacted Wednesday afternoon by telephone, Moore did not indicate any plans to remove the image from his Facebook page or to resign from the school board.

He also declined to comment on the public censure taken by his fellow board members or the Facebook posting seemingly triggering that action.

“I am not fully prepared to make any statement quite yet,” Moore said.

“The story is not complete,” he said of the issue that led the school board to act in such a manner, while mentioning he will be offering a full response “soon.”

Moore explained that he did not want the matter to be misinterpreted in the meantime.

The school board member did say during the course of the conversation that he believes the main objective of the school system should be the students’ safety and security — not only physically, but emotionally.

“We’ve got some great people in our school system,” Moore commented.

“Good people, but not perfect.”

Tom Joyce may be reached at 336-415-4693 or on Twitter @Me_Reporter.