FROM THE EDITOR: "I Am an American"
At Monday's School Board meeting, Superintendent Clint Mitchell made clear that his immigration status and citizenship are not up for debate.
By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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Head high, documents arrayed before him, Clint Mitchell leaned into the microphone that reached from the dais toward his seat and began to speak.
His trademark effervescent personality and staccato vocal pattern were not on display. Instead, he began to speak in a level, deliberative voice that was striking for its depth of tone and limited inflection.
“There has been an inquisition … about my immigration status, as well as the validity of my degrees,” he began.
Leading that inquisition, quietly and behind closed doors, is Lee’s Hill Board member Lisa Phelps.
As reported in the Advance on Monday, Phelps petitioned Board Chair Megan Jackson on October 12 to provide her and other Board members “a copy of the BWP recruitment package from 2024, including Dr. Mitchell’s college certifications and background check documents from that process.” BWP is the search firm the Board employed that led to Mitchell’s hiring.
Her grounds for the request were tied to “the recent arrest of an Iowa superintendent and the surrounding allegations,” even though BWP was not involved in the recruitment of former Des Moines, Iowa, Superintendent Ian Roberts. And even though Phelps had full access to those documents during the hiring process.
Mitchell took his case directly to the Grand Inquisitor.
He began by addressing his immigration status, bringing and displaying his original visa when he came from St. Lucia, his social security card, his first passport when he came from St. Lucia, his first U.S. passport, and his current passport, among other documents.
He had just begun.
“So let’s talk credentials,” Mitchell said. One by one, he began to produce the evidence.
Holding up a document, he said: “I have my high school diploma.”
Setting it down, he picked up a second: “I have my bachelor’s degree from Brooklyn College.”
He repeated the pattern again: “I have my masters’ from Brooklyn College,” and again, “I have my second masters’ from George Mason University,” and again, “Finally, I have my doctoral degree from Virginia Tech University.”
With the naming of each university, the displaying of each degree, Mitchell didn’t just prove his academic qualifications, but he walked each member of the board and each citizen in the room through an American story — with strength, not braggadocio; testimony, not tirade; humanity, not insult.
It was a display of the American Dream fulfilled and a reflection on American citizenship worthy of a Ken Burns documentary; a Dream that Phelps perhaps never fully understood or grasped, and a reflection of American citizenship she has apparently exchanged for a fear of the other. A reflection that ignores what America means to the world, and from which America draws its strength.
“When I came to this country at the age of 14,” Mitchell said, “I remember what my grandfather told me: ‘Make me proud, make sure you get an education.’”
Through grit, through sacrifice, through hard work, and through a willingness to sacrifice short-term gains for longer-term wisdom, Mitchell has surely made his grandfather proud.
At the conclusion of his remarks, the room erupted into applause, then a standing ovation.
Phelps, however, wasn’t there.
As has become a too-frequent occurrence since she and the prior voting block lost power, Phelps and April Gillespie simply chose not to show. They chose not to face the evidence Mitchell brought or confront the community that by its accolades made clear it was ready to move on from the chaos Phelps and Gillespie have been part of stoking since 2022.
Mitchell’s presence and Phelps’ absence offered a stark insight into the difference between leaders and provocateurs.
Mitchell showed tonight that he is a leader who knows he shoulders a public trust. He knows that there are days when he must absorb the barbs and the blame — whether fairly distributed or not. And he knows that the time will come when he will no longer hold power.
Leaders who understand leadership in this way are people who construct, not destroy. Who listen, not talk over people. Who admit their faults, and do not lord their strengths over others.
Most important, these leaders show up, taking criticism and praise in the same stride.
Phelps, by contrast, tonight and in her years on the Board, has proven herself a provocateur.
Provocateurs await their moment, offering little to the conversation when they are in the minority. When they gain the majority, however, they disrupt and tear down. They focus on problems while bringing few if any solutions. And they create enemies to distract from their shortcomings.
When their powers are gone, provocateurs recess into the shadows. They are unwilling to face the antiseptic powers of sunlight, unable to join hands and work to rebuild and strengthen that which they were once charged with protecting.
Tonight, Mitchell showed himself the leader Spotsylvania needs. He stood in the sunlight and said: “I Am an American. And I am here to lead.”
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