A Betrayed Muscle Shoals Parent Speaks

Muscle Shoals School Superintendent 

Chad O.G. Holden

Dr. Conner,

I have thought a lot about our meeting today and have decided to change my course of action. There is no need to have anyone contact me to schedule a visit on my apartment. I have decided to change direction as to where I will be sending my kids for school after the way I was treated today. In our meeting you did everything besides call me a liar about what I planned to do to enable my kids to attend the muscle shoals school system. I have heard great things about these schools and wanted my kids to be a part of that type of education. 

After our meeting today I realized that I do not want their values and culture growing from being around people that are turning away people who want the types of opportunities for their kids that they did not have available. I brought in the lease for the apartment, the electric bill and all other documents that are needed in my name to properly enroll an in district student. I explained the situation to you and that me and my wife had the understanding that this was something she was ok with me doing. You basically called me a liar and said that there was little chance that I would do that being married. You must not have had to sacrifice much in your life but my kids are of the utmost importance to me and I am willing to do whatever is needed to ensure they are properly taken care of.

I will not however expose them to the type of culture that I witnessed today. Also according to your policies which you did not follow it states “Resident students will be accepted conditionally pending confirmation of residency”. You did not keep any of my kids information and did not make any attempt to give me any kind of motion that you were even considering letting them in. You told me that I would be contacted and someone would come look at the apartment but had made it clear that you did not believe my situation and did not give any notion of being accepted. You also made a call to the high school principal and sent me out of the room for nearly 20 minutes to discuss the situation with him. I do not understand why this conversation would need to be had since it is a resident student and upon acceptance they would start at the school.

I do know that my wife’s ex-husband is a teacher at the high school and is very tight with the school principle which leads me to believe I am being discriminated against due to being a Hispanic person and the fact that I am with his ex-wife. He has also made comments about my son during the short period my son was at Muscle Shoals High that he better not ever take one of his classes and several racist comments to me which I have recorded. Another thing I wanted to mention was during the short period my son attended the high school before they were dismissed for the Covid-19 virus there was also a teacher who made a comment to my son asking him if him and his family were on the run due to our last name being Hispanic. 

These types of things are not acceptable in a school system and I realized I was working hard to get my kids into a system that would maybe give them a better book education but would not instill the core values they need to be good people. As far as the discrimination and racists actions go I will speak to my attorney to determine best course of action for those. Very sorry we could not work this out in a better manner as I tried to follow the proper policy and was denied.

Time for a change this coming city election?