St. Tammany School Board member loses his cool over hot mic following vote to extend its collective bargaining pact

Feeds:: Posts; Comments

St. Tammany School Board member loses his cool over hot mic following vote to extend its collective bargaining pact

April 22, 2026 by tomaswell

The folks in St. Tammany Parish are not too enamored with local school board member and apparent sore-loser Charles Harrell following the board’s approval last Thursday of an extension of the collective bargaining agreement with its employees.

Even though the board’s vote was unanimous, that didn’t deter Harrell from inadvertently registering his disapproval or disgust into a hot microphone as the audience comprised mostly of school board employees applauded.

He muttered, “Go f**k yourselves” before turning to fellow board member Kalinda Fauntleroy seated to his immediate right and adding, “See how they hide that s**t?”

While it’s uncertain just what he was suggesting as being hidden, his comments certainly were not. Picked up over his mic, the remarks were broadcast throughout the parish over the online video service that airs meetings live.

Needless to say, it’s got quite a few school board employees who were watching the vote live online kind of stirred up. Definitely not the kind of PR or role model you’d like from a board member charged with educating the kiddies.

There was speculation but not confirmation that board President Amanda Martin would call a special meeting in the next few days at which time she would offer a resolution to censure the outspokenly anti-union Harrell, who succeeded his daddy who served on the board for 24 years prior to Junior running for the seat seven years ago.

Public notice of any such meeting must, under law, be posted 24 hours in advance.

But hey, state law doesn’t always seem to apply. The school board administration had the video of the clip deleted to remove Harrell’s pontifications, but not before some alert viewer managed to save it and provide it to LouisianaVoice.

The deletion of his remarks constitutes injury of public records which is in violation of R.S. 14:132, which could carry a sentence of up to five years imprisonment and a fine of up to $5,000,and R.S. 44:36. What’s more, it’s not the first time such action has been taken by the administration, one observer said.