by Michael Monks
|
THE RIVER CITY NEWS MORE COVINGTON NEWS THAN ANY OTHER SOURCE
|
 |
| Denise Varney |
During Wednesday night's meeting of the Covington School Board one citizen asked for board member Denise Varney to resign. It was the first-term board member's first meeting since her and her husband's March 15 arrests following a domestic dispute. "Our kids are supposed to look up to the school board members," said Clinton Jackson of the Eastside neighborhood. "When you have a school board member that has done something violent, our kids should not have this double standard." Varney did not respond during the public portion of the meeting but did speak privately with The River City News afterwards.
|
"In twenty-one years of marriage it's never happened and it won't happen again," Varney said of the incident with her husband. Both faced domestic violence charges that will be dropped in September following the completion of marriage counseling and pending no further disturbances, she said. "It was not something that was planned. I've apologized to my friends and family for it and ask for privacy in dealing with this personal family matter."
|
Varney, who was elected in 2010 and is not one of the three members up for reelection in 2012, said that she will not resign. "I don't think this has changed the person that I am or what I do for the kids," she said. "Everyone makes a bad decision along the way and I would hope to be a good role model by showing class and perseverance."
While I understand that Ms. Varney has only been arrested once for a violent crime, for people working in a position of responsibility for and with children, once is one too many.
ReplyDeleteWould Ms. Varney, were she in a hiring position with the school system hire someone with a criminal history involving violence or allow someone to continue in their position? No, I doubt she would.
Our children have been told that if they commit acts of violence they will not be allowed to stay at their regular school and they will be expelled. What does it tell them if there are different rules for the poor school kid and the affluent school board member?
As a parent in this school system, I want to know that the people in the school board show good judgment, a respect for others and the law. Because of her behavior, I have no such respect for Ms. Varney's judgments or control. I would have had more respect had she stepped aside in order to concentrate on her mental health and anger issues and then re-offered herself as a candidate at a future date. As it stands, her attitude suggests that she isn't willing to take full responsibility for the ramifications of her violent actions as they pertain to her position as a role model for our children.