In a year of scandal and leadership change at Atlanta Public Schools, talk of cross-dressing and dirty rap lyrics has dominated the final days of a district election to the school board.
Voters in the west Atlanta district recently got a mailer that accused candidate Angela Brown of endorsing cross-dressing for APS students. Brown has said her words were misrepresented.
In an interview this fall in another publication, Brown said that as long as students adhered to their school’s dress code, she was in favor of individuality.
“I had pink hair with a long earring and a short earring. ... my mom allowed me to do it,” Brown said in September. “When it violates school policy, we have to adhere to the school policy. But whether it’s pink hair or gender bending on issues of dressing, I am definitively supportive of students doing that.”
Her opponent Byron Amos — himself attacked in a letter this week by former board chairman Khaatim S. El for his affiliation with a certain music label — denied sending the mailer.
Brown is not buying it.
“To say that he or his camp was not responsible is dishonest leadership,” she said. “If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck. It bothers me and I hope it bothers voters.”
Brown, a 46-year-old consultant, and Amos, a 39-year-old loss prevention specialist, beat three other candidates in November to force a runoff Tuesday. The new board member will join a school board that’s regrouping in the wake of the cheating scandal.
Both have campaigned on reform and renewed trust in the school board and throughout the system.
El, who quit the school board to move to New Jersey, wrote a letter endorsing Brown. He cited Amos’ work as vice president of UGK records, which represents hard-core rappers. Early in the campaign, Amos’ Facebook page contained questionable music videos produced by the label.
“He insists we should understand that it was just a job for him to be outside of a nightclub promoting gangster rap music that calls my nieces, and your daughters, [a vulgar term],” El wrote.
Amos could not be reached on Friday.
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