PHOENIX — The latest dispute between the state’s school chief and the Board of Education became a police matter Monday when Diane Douglas filed an assault complaint against Board President Greg Miller.
Douglas spokesman Charles Tack said his boss called the Department of Public Safety following what he described as Miller grabbing Douglas twice as he was attempting to declare she was speaking out of order. A DPS spokesman confirmed such a report was taken but said he could not comment beyond that.
Miller said what he did was justified.
“She was out of order again and, similar to the last time, I took her microphone away and pushed it up,’’ he said. “Obviously, I must have bumped her arm or something when I did that.’’
And Miller said that Douglas, in turning this into a police incident, is attempting to divert attention from her refusal to give the board’s investigators easy access to teacher files, something he said results in Douglas “protecting pedophiles in the classroom.’’
The incident marks an escalation in what has been a dispute between Douglas and the board over who has what authority.
That dispute that already has boiled over into civil litigation.
Earlier this year the board moved its employees out of the Department of Education building following months of squabbling, including Douglas’ efforts to fire two board employees.
It remains the responsibility of the board’s investigators to determine whether teachers should get or keep their certification. But the files exist only on the Department of Education computers.
Douglas has refused to allow the investigators to access the computers online citing security concerns. But she said those investigators can use the terminals in her building, where she contends they should be working under her direction.
On Monday the board discussed what action, if any, to take. Tack said Miller argued that denying online access was hampering investigations and endangering Arizona children. “She started to try to defend her,” Tack said.
“He then grabbed her on the arm and said, ‘You’re out of order,’ and then grabbed her again and then slapped her microphone away from her,” he continued. And he said this has happened before. “Today we saw that he’s apparently unable to control himself,” Tack said. “And when he gets frustrated he feels the only thing he can do, instead of appropriately addressing the situation by calling the superintendent out of order, is physically grab her and assault her.”
