Chambers County teacher arrested during protest of school closure plan

Chambers County teacher arrested during protest of school closure plan

Two members of a group of teachers protesting against Chambers County’s school consolidation plan were arrested for disorderly conduct at a school board meeting Wednesday evening.

A live video shared to Facebook shows a 5-minute clip of two Valley police officers preparing to arrest two people wearing “Good Trouble” shirts near the front row of the Langdale Auditorium in Valley.

AL.com confirmed one of the individuals was Valley High teacher Tytianna Smith. Smith did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but a relative told AL.com she was bonded out Wednesday night.

Chambers County Schools Superintendent Casey Chambley and Valley Police Chief Mike Reynolds did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Reynolds confirmed to the Valley Times-News, however, that protesters were “arrested for disorderly conduct for disrupting a lawful meeting.”

The board typically meets at the district’s central office in LaFayette, but moved to a different jurisdiction because it was recognizing Teacher of the Year nominees and needed a larger space, according to the Times-News.

Smith is a leader of LaFayette Teachers Against Displacement, a group that’s been protesting a judge’s recent decision to allow the board to close and merge two high schools.

As part of a decades-old desegregation order, the district will close majority-Black LaFayette High and majority-white Valley High to build a new, consolidated high school in the Valley community. Smith previously taught at LaFayette High.

The district has already closed several elementary and middle schools across the county, most of which were located in LaFayette.

“We’re not done fighting for the school to be here,” Smith said at a rally outside the school board office in August. “That’s equity. Highway 50 is equality. Valley is oppression.”

Wednesday’s video, posted to LTAD’s Facebook page, begins with the board discussing personnel decisions. About a minute into the video, Smith takes a seat on the floor. An officer approaches her and asks her to sit in a chair, citing board rules.

Smith attempts to explain her constitutional rights when the officer tells her that he’s going to ask her to leave if she doesn’t get off the floor. She agrees to sit in the chair, and then says “you’ll hear from my lawyer.”

Smith and another LTAD member then take out flyers that show a 1960s mugshot of late Representative John Lewis and say “Be Hopeful. Be Optimistic” and “Get in Good Trouble.”

The officer asks them to put their signs away, stating that the board asked for no signs to be brought into the meeting. According to the LaFayette Sun, the district began enforcing a no signage rule in October.

Smith tells him the flyers aren’t signs; they’re pieces of paper. The officer then tells her that she’s disturbing the meeting.

“Are we violating the law?” another LTAD member asks.

“Yes ma’am,” the officer says, stating that they were being disorderly.

The other member told the officer that they were not violating Alabama law, to which the officer disagrees.

“So either put the signs away, or…” he says, before one of the women says “or you’re going to arrest us?”

“Yes ma’am,” he said.

“I’m asking you to leave,” he said again, before turning to another officer and asking him to call more officers.

“Go and pick up your items and go with these officers,” he told the women, then saying to an individual off-screen: “These two refused to abide by the rules and so they’re getting charged with disorderly conduct.”

Smith said she was again confused about the rules.

“You’re being disorderly. I’ve asked you to leave. You refused to leave. You’re being placed under arrest for disorderly conduct. Gather your equipment –” the officer says, before the video ends.

This is a developing story.