‘I’m so angry I just want to kill the coach and I have a gun.’

At least, those are the words that are attributed, in a sheriff’s report, to a member of the Richland 2 school board:

Melinda Anderson

Melinda Anderson

A verbal threat by Richland 2 school board member Melinda Anderson directed at Westwood High School’s football coach resulted in no formal charges, the Richland County Sheriff’s Department said Tuesday….

The information report, filed with the Sheriff’s Department, said Anderson was in a meeting about her grandson, discussing his “treatment” by Coach Summers when she said, “I’m so angry I just want to kill the coach and I have a gun.”

The report listed Richland 2 schools superintendent Debbie Hamm as the complainant and said neither Hamm nor Summers wished to prosecute….

A reader brought that to my attention today, with this commentary:

Funny Brad. Why don’t we go down to our local school and threaten the coach by stating that “I have a gun” and “I want to kill the football coach”- and let’s see how quickly we are arrested and charged with making terroristic threats toward a school official.

But Melinda Anderson does it and “It was just words that were exchanged,” said Sgt. Curtis Wilson, the department’s public information officer.

Just words?  Is that they new acceptable standard for schools?    Funny how certain people are treated differently isn’t it?

Hmmm……….

I don’t know about “certain people.” I do know that if I were to say those words, I should probably be arrested because it would mean I had totally lost my mind. I don’t know Melinda Anderson, and therefore don’t know whether she’s just given to saying outrageous things.

But the real point here is that she is indeed “certain people” in the sense that she’s an elected official, one with political power over the school. Even if she had uttered a far milder threat — say, “I don’t like the way this employee has dealt with a member of my family, so I’m going to do all that is in my power to make real trouble for him” — it would have been grossly inappropriate, given her position. The “kill” and the “gun” parts, if she said them, just take things to another level of outrageousness. And absurdity.

I don’t think a person who says what she did needs to be arrested unless there is sufficient reason to believe she meant it literally. But I do think anyone who would say that has no business holding public office.

For her part, in a later version of the story, Ms. Anderson denied having said it:

Anderson denied making the inflammatory statement about Coach Rodney Summer and characterized the incident as a “bunch of foolishness” cooked up by some members of the Richland 2 administration to discredit her.

“I know what I said,” Anderson, who has served on the board for 23 years, said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “My record has been impeccable and speaks for itself. You can’t fight untruths and I’m not going to lower my standards to do that.”

15 thoughts on “‘I’m so angry I just want to kill the coach and I have a gun.’”

  1. Doug Ross

    This would be a good time for our local representatives to do the right thing.

    Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha… That’s a good one, Doug!

    1. Doug Ross

      Jeremy would have been expelled.

      Although I do think that these lines are more fitting to this situation:

      At home
      Drawing pictures
      Of mountain tops
      With him(her) on top
      Lemon yellow sun
      Arms raised in a V
      Dead lay in pools of maroon below

  5. Brad Warthen Post author

    For what it’s worth, the last time Debbie Hamm and Melinda Anderson both appeared in a story in The State, Ms. Anderson was celebrating the good vibes around Ms. Hamm:

    Richland 2 interim schools superintendent Debbie Hamm renewed and re-energized relationships with the Midlands business and professional community Thursday at a breakfast that drew about 275 people.

    “Look at this atmosphere,” school board member Melinda Anderson said, surveying the crowd. “It’s glowing.”

    Doesn’t sound like there’s been any ongoing conflict, but this is but one point of data.

    Earlier, Ms. Anderson baked a cake for longtime finance chief Bob Davis‘ retirement.

    So again, she didn’t seem terribly alienated from the administration. For what that’s worth…

    2. barry

      and No Brad. The coach didn’t want to press charges.

      Most people in his position would be foolish to press charges against a school board member – just like most people would kill their career if they filed charges against their own boss.

      The coach had a choice- but a terrible choice.

  6. Doug Ross

    Just to provide context to why the comment was made, Ms. Anderson was complaining to the district administration about how much playing time her grandson was getting on the football team at Westwood High School. She shouldn’t have been doing that in the first place.

      1. barry

        They do – but they are ignored. Unless you know something I don’t, the police aren’t called (as they were in this case) when parents sometimes complain about playing time.

        and bodily harm threats aren’t typically part of the usual parent complaint to a high school coach.

        and the typical parent isn’t on the school board.

      2. Doug Ross

        @Silence – parents don’t go to the superintendent about playing time issues… and at the high school level, they rarely even go to the coach. And when they do, it is more likely their kid will suffer. My son spent many years with a travel baseball team. If a parent complained about playing time, that pretty much guaranteed the kid was gone from the team the next year.

        1. Silence

          Oh, I just meant that parents bitch about their kid’s playing time or lack thereof all the time. To whomever. As a former H.S. coach, I wouldn’t bench a kid to punish the parents, but I might like them a bunch less.

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