Amanda Duboise Watkins Bipolar?

Was Amanda Duboise Watkins in the midst of a bipolar manic episode when she allegedly performed fellatio on a 15 year-old former student? The one-time junior high English teacher and her defense attorney Ralph Holt may well run this scenario up the flagpole. According to one psychiatric journal:

People with bipolar disorder experiencing hypersexuality may:

• Have multiple sex partners
• Think about sex constantly
• Have one-night stands
• Be more interested in pornography
• Notice a difference in their sexual behaviors
• Engage in other reckless behaviors like driving too fast or gambling

It's a pretty good guess the state's psychiatrist will play down any manic behavior in Watkins' past.

Related Posts: Delmer & Amanda Duboise Do...Their Students

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TVA NOTICE MUSCLE SHOALS RESERVATION REDEVELOPMENT

COLBERT COUNTY, ALABAMA

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has completed the draft environmental impact statement for the proposed disposal and redevelopment of 1,400-acre of its Muscle Shoals Reservation. We invite your comments on it; comments should be submitted by February 28, 2011. Copies are available at public libraries in the Muscle Shoals area and online at www.tva.gov/environment/reports/muscle_shoals/index.htm.

See the website for more information on the proposal, instructions on submitting comments, and how to request a copy of the document. You may also contact:

Stanford E. Davis, Senior NEPA Specialist Tennessee Valley Authority
400 West Summit Hill Drive, WT 11D
Knoxville, TN 37902
Phone: 865-632-2915

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Eyesore of the week: Travel east on Tennessee Street, enjoy the mix of old and new, stop at the traffic light on Poplar Street. The first five seconds are enjoyable. You're looking at the Knight & Humphries Real Estate office, a very attractive office. The second five seconds at the red light are less enjoyable. What's that rusted sign in front of the Knight & Humphries building? Is it a donut?

Yep, that's a rusted donut left over from the 1970s...or was it the 1960's. This sign is even more hideous than the WVNA white elephant adjoining McFarland Park. Surely Knight & Humphries can either find a fitting sign for their business or, if not, simply remove this monstrosity from the streetscape. Considering the work put into making their offices attractive to the passing public, they have to know this past its prime pastry is no selling point for their business.

Shoalanda

Is the AEA Protecting Amanda Duboise Watkins?

Amanda Ladel Duboise Watkins is no longer an employee of the Sheffield School System if we are to believe local news reports. Yet, the Sheffield Board of Education refuses to verify that fact, referring all inquiries to their attorney. What does their legal representative say? He has yet to return calls to the Associated Press in Montgomery.

Rest assured that Mrs. Watkins is still a member of the Alabama Education Association, a teachers' union headed by Paul Hubbert, a one-time friend and associate of Watkins' father Delmer Duboise. The elder Duboise served as both instructor and Public Relations Director for Northwest Community College for approximately ten years, leaving the small two-year institution in 1996.

According to newspaper accounts from that era, Duboise, then 47, was arrested on May 27, 1995, for criminal solicitation. According to Franklin County authorities, Duboise offered a 20 year-old male student the munificent sum of $25.00 to engage in a sex act. (Feel free to inject any jokes about the Bill and Chelsea Clinton of Northwest Alabama.) In case you think the amount $25.00 was a typo, rest assured it is not. That amount would equal approximately $34.31 in 2010.

Duboise announced that he had been set up by his political enemies and demanded a trial sans jury. Franklin County was adamant that Duboise should be judged by a jury of his peers--thus producing an extended legal battle in which the AEA provided Duboise assistance. While awaiting trial, Delmer Duboise was assigned to the Institutional Research Department at Northwest Community College.

After a legal battle that finally terminated in the Alabama Supreme Court the next March, Duboise was allowed to be tried without a jury. The Franklin county educator was eventually offered probation for the misdemeanor offense and quietly left academic life. For the past several years, Duboise has been mentioned in various news outlets as a "minister."

Have Delmer Duboise's connections to Paul Hubbert and Jim Folsom Jr. influenced the stance of the Sheffield Board of Education? Their refusal to discuss the incident with the press has not made the sex charges against Amanda Duboise Watkins go away; their refusal has made the Montgomery AP journalist just that more determined to report on the situation.


Note: While we have stated these facts before, we will do so again for those who insist upon promoting rumors about various political candidates:

1. We are not connected in any way to the ShoalsInsider.
2. We have not endorsed any candidate in the 2010 elections.
3. Anyone is welcome to send us commentary/articles. In fact, we encourage it.
4. No political candidate is associated with this blog. We have published one column from Tina Miller Parker concerning CASA, an extremely worthy organization. Any candidate may send us material to publish at any time. Again, we encourage it.
5. No one associated with this blog is familially related to any candidate in Colbert County.
6. The noted columnist that we anticipate joining our blogging group is not a candidate in any election.
7. Any individual(s) asserting anything contrary to the above is merely muckraking and does not serve their candidate(s) well.

Shoalanda

Amanda Duboise Watkins' Political Connections

Amanda Watkins has been accused of having sex with a 15 year-old former student. Actually, from early accounts of the arrest, the 38 year-old Mrs. Watkins was literally caught with her knickers down. Now the Sheffield Board of Education is refusing to name the infamous teacher in public reports, and a reporter with the Associated Press in Montgomery is asking why.

Mrs. Watkins' father has been active in North Alabama and State politics since his daughter's birth. In 1972, Delmer Duboise, then a resident of Phil Campbell, ran for delegate to the Democratic National Convention. By 1975, Duboise had been elected to the Franklin County Board of Education. As a member of the Board, Duboise prided himself on his attempts to halt the cash-strapped Board from excess spending. In fact, Duboise was so vocal in his criticism of the Superintendent, few doubted his next move would be an attempt to unseat then Superintendent Jimmy Clements.

By 1977, Duboise had been appointed Franklin County Uni-Serv Director of the Alabama Education Association , becoming friends with Paul Hubbert. In September 1978, Duboise abruptly resigned as Chairman of the Franklin County Democratic Party; the next month saw him ensconced as the administrative assistant to Jim Folsom Jr., then head of the Public Service Commission.

In 1980, Delmer Duboise saw his first political setback when opponents of Folsom presented evidence that the administrative assistant was using a PSC vehicle to travel from Montgomery to his home in Russellville. Duboise's political aspirations hit an even greater snag in 1982 when six black staff members of the PSC accused him of "racially discriminatory action."

By 1984, Duboise was back home in Russellville and seeking to become the first director of the Russellville Industrial Development Board. After not making the final cut, Duboise decided to return to the realm of education. At that time, Northwest Community College, then a separate entity from its sister school in the Shoals, was in need of a Public Relations Director. Sources say Duboise used his influence with Paul Hubbert to secure the position. For the next few years, Delmer Duboise's star was again on the rise.


Tomorrow: How he earned the name "Delmer Dubious"

Shoalanda

Sexual Predators? The Trials of Three Teachers

The trial of Jessica Heather DeFoor got underway in Morgan County on Monday. The 36 year-old DeFoor, a former second grade teacher at Danville-Neel Elementary School is charged with enticing a 14 year-old girl for immoral purposes.

During yesterday's testimony, it was revealed that DeFoor was dating Zachary W. Mullins at the time of the alleged rape. The most startling revelation of the trial concerns the victim herself; the young woman is the sister of Mullins, now 22. The victim testified that after DeFoor and Mullins had sex, her brother then raped her repeatedly, starting a period of abuse that lasted 18 months.

When testimony resumes today, DeFoor's defense team is expected to argue the victim is attempting to lessen her brother's guilt by implicating the teacher, the victim's flag team sponsor. No matter the verdict in this trial, pending charges against Zachary W. Mullins are expected to be upgraded to first degree rape.

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The Associated Press office in Montgomery has stated the Sheffield Board of Education has not been forthcoming with details concerning the arrest of Amanda Duboise Watkins, a former Sheffield Junior High teacher charged with rape.

Watkins' father is Delmer Duboise, a former Franklin County Board of Education member and one-time instructor at Northwest Community College. Sources suggest this may have influenced the Sheffield Board's stance on the rape and sodomy charges.

We can look for more from the AP office in Montgomery to be forthcoming in the next few weeks. In the mean time, all court proceedings for Watkins have been postponed until May.

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Former Clements High School teacher Keith McGuire, formerly of Lexington, was acquitted of rape and sodomy charges last July; however, the Alabama Board of Education has still not ruled on the status of his teaching license.

McGuire's license was originally suspended pending the outcome of the Lauderdale Court case. Chief Administrative Law Judge Walter Turner was expected to rule on complaints that McGuire had fondled at least four students, the youngest 12; however, due to the delays requested by McGuire's lawyers, the trial was not held until after Judge Turner's retirement.

A second judge has been appointed to review the evidence in those cases, none of which has precipitated formal legal charges. Associated Press writer Jean Cole in Athens has stated the new judge should rule by the end of the month. It's our understanding that if the ruling is in favor of the State Board of Education, Keith McGuire would be allowed to appeal to Circuit Court.


For what it's worth: Just how hard is it for a teacher to keep his/her hands off a student? We hope every parent is involved in their child's education. No child or teenager should have to suffer at the hands of those who have promised to protect them.

Shoalanda