'Would You Please Kill His Mic': Cobb School Board Picks New Leaders Amid Partisan Arguing

COBB COUNTY, GA — The Cobb County School District Board of Education elected board member David Chastain as the new chair, and voted to keep David Banks in his role as vice chair. But the vote was split along party lines, and came after heated arguments.

The board's three Democrats — Dr. Jaha Howard, Leroy "Tré" Hutchins and Charisse Davis — voted for Hutchins as board chair after he was nominated by Howard. They were overruled by the board's four Republicans, who all voted for Chastain.

When that motion failed, Howard nominated Hutchins for vice chair. That motion failed too, with all four Republicans voting for Banks to stay in his role.

Between the votes, there were several arguments between outgoing Board Chair Randy Scamihorn and Howard. When Howard nominated Hutchins for board chair, he asked for discussion so he could list his reasons for nominating him, and made jabs at Scamihorn in the process.

"Tré believes that our schools should not be named after Confederate generals. Tré believes it's bad to sympathize with January 6 insurrectionists. Tré would review an accreditation report before steamrolling a contract through, not afterward," Howard said.

Howard listed several other reasons for nominating Hutchins, saying as board chair he would not ignore phone calls and emails from other board members; he would listen to experts when it came to the pandemic; and he would "tell the truth in every room, not just in some."

"Thank you, Dr. Howard, and I appreciate that Mr. Hutchins and I believe in the same things," Scamihorn said in response.

Davis spoke in support of Hutchins as board chair as well.

"I have already sat through a year of Mr. Chastain being the chair [since I've been on the board], and I do not feel like that's the leadership that we need," Davis said. "I know Mr. Hutchins is not afraid to tackle the challenges that we're dealing with as a school district, and I completely support his nomination for chair."

Howard raised more concerns over Banks' nomination for vice chair. Banks previously sent out an email to constituents from his official board email address with conspiracy-laden information about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines; once called a constituent a "mask Nazi," according to the Marietta Daily Journal; and previously referred to COVID-19 as the "China virus."

Howard mentioned several of those incidents in his points of concern, and said Banks has "done several things that bring an embarrassment to this county."

"Mr. Banks is somebody who has publicly stated that he does not believe in the effectiveness of masks, which is contrary to our policy, and I think that's important. Mr. Banks has also had several concerning behavioral issues that have been discussed behind the scenes and for some reason he's continued to be nominated as chair," Howard said. "I would urge our board not to embarrass ourselves further by voting for Mr. Banks as our vice chair."

Scamihorn said Howard's comments were inappropriate. When Scamihorn mistakenly called Howard "Dr. Hutchins" instead of his name, Howard corrected him, and the two started talking over each other.

"I got it, Dr. Howard. I got it," Scamihorn said after Howard talked over him and corrected him.

"Just helping you—" Howard started to say, as Scamihorn talked over him in return.

"Well, don't help me," Scamihorn said. The two men continued to argue with each other, and Scamihorn looked to the audio/video team and said: "Would you please kill his mic, please."

"Do you feel powerful by doing that?" Howard asked.

"I feel like I can have my discussion," Scamihorn said in response. He repeated that his comments were inappropriate, and said he should "criticize in private, praise in public."

Howard eventually leaned over to Davis' mic, since she was dialing in over the phone, and said "it would be nice if you returned a phone call."

The board also approved its schedule of meetings for 2022 at Thursday's meeting. You can watch all meetings online at cobbk12.org.

Related: Email Discouraging COVID Vaccines Sent By Cobb School Leader