More than 100 people showed up to Tuesday night’s Decatur school board meeting, with many standing inside the central office auditorium because there were no available seats in the board room.
But if they were hoping to learn the fate of Decatur High School media clerk Susan Riley, they left with no more knowledge than when they arrived.
After eight residents spent nearly half an hour speaking, at times with barely-controlled emotion about Riley’s 19 years at the high school, Board Chair Annie Caiola addressed the audience.
“The board knows Susan Riley has an indisputable reputation,” she said. “But we simply can’t comment on this matter. It’s frustrating that we can’t comment, but I will say many of the rumors circulating out there simply aren’t true.
“(Superintendent David Dude) will engage a third party to give impartial advice,” she continued. “We ask that the community show patience.”
Caiola did not go into specifics about the rumors and once the public comment period was over, the school board got back to the posted agenda items.
Dude fired the 61-year-old Riley on Feb. 26 at the district offices. It was a Friday and he said she’d be able to collect her things from the school on that Monday. But over the weekend, hundreds of Riley supporters posted messages on social media platforms.
By Sunday, Riley’s status had changed to suspended with pay pending an investigation.
A rally across the street from the school on the morning of Feb. 29 brought out 100 people who demanded answers about Riley’s dismissal.
In the days since there has been an emergency board meeting and an emergency meeting between Dude and the high school’s faculty.
But as of Tuesday night the third-party mediator hadn’t been named.
Last week Riley’s attorney, David Hughes, released a list of charges that he said Dude gave to Riley as reasons for the initial termination. It appears the most serious is that Riley kept an iPad at her home — a device that was purchased for her use in 2012 — over winter break.
Dude has since told The AJC there are more charges against Riley than what Hughes made public. He added that there are also “inaccuracies” in some of the reports about the charges.
Neither Hughes nor Riley attended Tuesday’s meeting. Hughes did not return a phone call and text on Tuesday.
But others had plenty to say during the evening’s public comment portion, which was limited to three minutes per person.
“Susan Riley knows how to lie in only one instance,” local attorney Tom Stubbs told the board, “and that’s when a student asks, ‘Are you busy?’”
“Susan Riley is an innocent victim lying face-up on the guillotine,” he said. “We need to make this right. We are not a bureaucracy at City Schools Decatur. We are a family who is more about hugs than handshakes.”
Sara Norman, a 2014 DHS graduate and one of the organizers of the Feb. 29 rally, told the board that Riley always had time for her.
“People like Ms. Riley made my time at Decatur High amazing,” Norman said. “She is one of the most loved people in the school. If this is the direction the school system continues going in, I will be ashamed of my alma mater.”
Dude has not yet given a timetable for the third-party mediation process. He has said that the big-picture scenario and subsequent discipline may involve additional people, not just Riley.
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