As Spotsylvania County School Board Chair Lorita Daniels sensed the mood shifting Monday night, she reminded all students and parents who were on hand to receive recognition earlier in the meeting that they could leave if they desired.
It may be a good thing not many youths hung around for what was about to transpire.
The interruption of a public speaker criticizing Superintendent Clint Mitchell for the division’s public response to a case involving the alleged molestation of eight disabled children on a school bus last month led to a chaotic sequence of events.
Mitchell instructed the board to cut off the microphone of Carla Millsap — a 2024 Spotsylvania High School graduate — after she labeled as dismissive his comments during the Sept. 9 meeting about an April incident that led to an assault conviction of a Cedar Forest Elementary School behavioral specialist.
Millsap went on to say that “we believe he holds the same insensitive, dismissive position with the current Miguel Velasco Velasquez child sexual assault situation.”
Velasquez, a 22-year-old former bus aide, was arrested last month on eight charges of aggravated sexual battery of a child, two counts of indecent liberties with a child while in a custodial role and one count of attempted sodomy of a child.
After Daniels told Millsap that she could not speak publicly about an employee and asked if she had any school business to discuss, an audience member became audibly upset and was removed by a Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office deputy. The deputy was later accused of assault by Berkeley District board member April Gillespie, who attempted to file a complaint against the deputy Tuesday morning but said she was denied by the county magistrate.
Millsap called the board “pathetic,” and Gillespie was critical of Daniels for muting the microphone.
“You’re telling people they can’t talk about certain things. That’s not appropriate,” Gillespie said. “It’s freedom of speech. You said you were going to cut her mic off if she continued to talk about an incident that happened in our schools. How are you going to cut her mic off for trying to talk about something that happened in our schools?”
The board went into recess. After consultation with legal counsel, Millsap was allowed to finish later in the meeting. She concluded by questioning why the division did not release a statement on the alleged bus incident.
“What school bus did this occur on?” she asked. “How fast did the administration respond and did the parents on that bus get notified immediately? That’s it. That’s all I had to say.”
During superintendent comments, Mitchell countered that he visited every family of children impacted by the incident. He said he does not bring it up because he believes the discussion “re-victimizes” those affected.
“This evening, I sat here as I did the last several meetings listening to individuals speak of things that they don’t really know about,” Mitchell said. “Most of the people … they don’t know me.”
Mitchell said he checked on the victims’ families the Monday after hearing what allegedly happened on the bus. He said he offered family members “whatever support we had as a school division.”
“It’s not because we don’t want to put a statement out,” Mitchell said. “It’s because we are trying not to re-victimize those victims because every time we talk about this very unfortunate situation, we re-victimize those situations. We allow our transportation folks who do the heavy lifting the opportunity to relive that horror every single day and most importantly we are not allowing law enforcement to do their work.
“One thing I can tell you for sure, is that at the end of the day, we want to make sure this person never does this again to any student.”
Some school board members do not believe the division is doing enough to avoid similar incidents in the future.
Following closed session, Gillespie, Lee Hill District representative Lisa Phelps and Megan Jackson of the Livingston District voted against a board packet that included personnel hires. Daniels abstained from the vote. After Phelps and Gillespie departed and Jackson had to leave for personal reasons, the board reconvened in closed session and re-emerged at the end of the meeting to approve the packet 4-0 with Daniels’ support.
Gillespie said the dissenting members were refused additional information on the new hires.
“We kept asking, ‘Have they worked around children before? Do they have any kind of history of any kind of crime?” Gillespie said. “On the packet last night, there were people with criminal backgrounds, and they recommended them for hire. It’s just wrong.”
Gillespie said the division is desperate to hire people to fill staff shortages. Jackson said she voted against the packet because she also did not receive the information she requested for new hires.
“To be clear, all requirements were met,” Jackson said. “However, due to recent events, I wanted additional information to make a more informed decision. After speaking with Dr. Mitchell, I am confident the additional information will be provided moving forward.”
The board also took heat from another parent upset over a perceived lack of communication when troubling incidents occur. The parent’s allotted time ended, and Daniels called on the next speaker before Gillespie accused her of showing favoritism to citizens whose views are aligned with the board’s majority.
Daniels initiated a vote to allow the speaker an additional 10 seconds. The motion passed 5-1 with Vice Chair Nicole Cole dissenting.
