Rebuffed in their attempt to bring a Clements High School senior’s disciplinary case before the Fort Bend Independent School District Board on Monday, trustees Stan Magee and Ken Bryant are trying again.
The two requested that FBISD Board President Steve Smelley call a special board meeting on Monday to discuss the disciplinary case of the unidentified student (see related story). The boy was removed from school several days ago after administrators learned he’d modified a first-person shooter computer game map to resemble a portion of Clements.
But while Smelley called the special meeting, as required by district policy, he and three other board trustees failed to show for the meeting. That left Magee, Bryant, Trustee Lisa Rickert and Superintendent Dr. Timothy Jenney to face about 120 members of the local Chinese community who had packed the board room to show support for the boy’s mother.
Bryant told the crowd that with only three board members present, the meeting couldn’t be legally held.
On Tuesday, Magee said he and Bryant have again requested that Smelley call a special meeting about the boy’s case. They originally asked for the meeting to be held Friday, but Jenney informed them he’d be out of town that day. Magee said they sought to have the matter included on the agenda at Monday’s upcoming regular board meeting, but Jenney and Smelley said there wasn’t time to include it.
Late Tuesday afternoon, a district staff member was attempting to contact board members to see if a quorum could be reached for a special meeting May 9, Magee said.
The controversial case of the student game-map maker has taken on political overtones. Smelley said he and trustees Cynthia Knox, Laurie Caldwell and Sonal Bhuchar boycotted the Monday meeting because they felt Bryant and Rickert were pandering to the Chinese community in an attempt to gain votes in the upcoming May 12 election.
Rickert said she went to the meeting unaware Smelley and the other three trustees had agreed not to attend, expecting to hear an update on the student’s case. “It’s unfortunate that he would attempt to make this a campaign issue, which it is not,” she said of Smelley.
Magee, who said the board probably would have voted to modify some of the disciplinary measures taken against the Clements senior, blasted Smelley on Tuesday.
“You’ve got a president who knew the vote was going to go against him” and stayed away from the meeting to prevent that vote from occurring, he said. “That’s not his privilege.”
Smelley didn’t want to see the school administration’s disciplinary action overturned, Magee said, because he believed it might win votes for Rickert in her race against board challenger Bob Broxson.
“You need to think about the kid first, no matter what your politics are,” Magee said of Smelley. “If you’re against it, vote ‘no,’ but bring your butt to the meeting.”
Smelley dismissed Magee’s statements, saying, “I’m trying to stand up and do what’s right, and follow the (disciplinary) process. And the process is being expedited.”
He explained that district policy calls for a four-tier procedure in the event parents choose to appeal a disciplinary decision. And, Smelley said, Superintendent Jenney made a commitment to the board that he would work to speed the procedure along in an attempt to bring it to the fourth tier – a hearing before the board – within about two weeks.
“We already had that discussion,” Smelley said of board members. “They all know that.”
The two requested that FBISD Board President Steve Smelley call a special board meeting on Monday to discuss the disciplinary case of the unidentified student (see related story). The boy was removed from school several days ago after administrators learned he’d modified a first-person shooter computer game map to resemble a portion of Clements.
But while Smelley called the special meeting, as required by district policy, he and three other board trustees failed to show for the meeting.
