Teacher Arrested and Cuffed for speaking Out at Meeting

https://www.buzzfeed.com/tasneemnashrulla/teacher-arrested-for-questioning-pay-raise?utm_term=.vwkaDwaoV#.arbbvebQ3

A middle school teacher was handcuffed after she questioned the superintendent's pay raise during a school board meeting in Louisiana on Monday night.

Noting that class sizes had grown, Hargrave told the Vermillion Parish School Board that it was "unspeakable" and "absurd" that the superintendent was getting a raise "when teachers are working this hard, and not even getting a dime."
"It's a sad, sad day to be a teacher in Vermillion Parish," Hargrave said.
She told BuzzFeed News on Tuesday that the district had been carrying out teacher cutbacks and that staff members were being treated unprofessionally while facing increasing demands.
"It's not fair that the little money we have is going to the top and not to the teachers and support staff," she said. "It just didn't seem right to me that the superintendent was getting a raise when no one else is getting one."
She added that the superintendent was always getting credit for the teachers' work and that his raise of $38,000 equaled the annual salary of a teacher, or two cafeteria workers, or two janitors.
During the meeting, her comments prompted board president Anthony Fontana to rule Hargrave out of order during the meeting, KATC reported. Hargrave, however, told BuzzFeed News she could not recall if he said so or not.

After the board voted to approve Puyau's contract with the raise, Hargrave once again expressed her frustrations, but was stopped by an Abbeville city marshal officer, who told her, "You're going to leave or I'm going to remove you."

After the vote, Hargrave — who was recognized by the board — told them, "How are you taking the raise when you are basically taking from the teachers and the employees under you?"
As people in the audience agreed with Hargrave, Fontana banged his gavel multiple times and ordered Hargrave to stop talking because the raise "wasn't on the agenda" — promoting several others in the meeting to disagree.
As Puyau began to directly address Hargrave's concerns, the city marshal officer asked her to leave.
Hargrave told BuzzFeed News that she thought the officer was "confused" and did not understand the protocol at board meetings, where members in the audience are allowed to comment if they are recognized by the board.
"It's something I have done before and never gotten escorted out, let alone arrested," she said.

In a video, uploaded by KATC, the city marshal officer appears to push Hargrave to the ground and handcuff her outside the room after she left the meeting.