Credit Youtube / Screenshot
The Paducah Board of Education after about two hours of private deliberation in executive session directed Superintendent Donald Shively to take 40 days of unpaid leave for “additional training, education, and community involvement.”
This action follows weeks of community unrest and calls for Shively’s resignation by parents, community members, and the Paducah-McCracken County NAACP with the resurfacing of a photo of Shively in blackface.
The motion passed by the board directs Shively to take 40 days off between now and 2022, with 20 of those days off between now and the start of the 2021 school year. Board member James Hudson abstained from the vote, with all others voting in favor.
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Board Chairman Carl LeBuhn said the public commentary during the meeting was to allow for more time for people to express themselves about the photo, following group and individual meetings Shively had with students, parents and faculty. More than a dozen people spoke to the board including some who said they were members of the NAACP. The Paducah-McCracken County NAACP chapter previously called for Shively’s resignation, with community members staging a protest at Paducah Tilghman High School calling for his resignation.
Martha Emmons, co-owner of a local bike shop, asked the board how the board plans to repair broken student and community trust if Shively remains superintendent. She also asked what consequences other district staff could face in the future following this situation.
Credit Liam Niemeyer / WKMS
Dozens protested at Paducah Tilghman High School on Sunday calling on Paducah Public Schools Superintendent Donald Shively to resign, following more than a week of community unrest after a past photo of Shively in blackface surfaced online.
Paducah Public Schools alumni, students, and parents of students marched around the high school holding signs that read, “Resign Shively” and “My race is not a costume,” with several people giving speeches to the crowd.
A photo of Shively in blackface wearing a Paducah-Tilghman shirt recently emerged, as first reported by WPSD-TV and the Paducah Sun. Shively claims the photo was from a Halloween party in the early 2000s and has since apologized, meeting with students and the local NAACP chapter, which is calling for his resignation. But parents at the protest say the black community’s pain and broken trust over the photo hasn’t been adequately addressed.