Atlanta-area superintendent caught in racist rant recording gets suspended

The suburban Atlanta school chief who was heard in a racist rant on tape has found himself in even deeper trouble

Aug 23, 2018

Geye Hamby, a popular school superintendent in Buford, Ga., who was nonetheless caught in audio recordings shouting racist expletives, has been placed on administrative leave.

The comments were unearthed during a racial discrimination suit filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta by Mary Ingram – a former Buford employee who says she was unfairly terminated, which included the audio recordings as an exhibit. Hamby is heard using numerous racial slurs and threatening to kill a Black construction worker.

“F— that n—er,” Hamby clearly says during a recorded phone call to a colleague. “I’ll kill these motherf—ers — shoot that motherf—er if they let me.”

Hamby also repeatedly refers to blacks as “deadbeat n—ers.” The audio has sent shockwaves through the community, which is located north of Atlanta in Gwinett County.

“The board anticipates further action on this matter at a specially called meeting in the next several days,” the school system said in a statement to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The district will continue to focus on the mission of empowering our students to reach their full potential.”

The next regular school board meeting is at 7 p.m. next Monday, Aug. 27. Walt Britt, a Buford attorney representing the five-member school board, said the board has unable to determine the recording’s authenticity.

“Our investigation continues into this matter, but we are hamstrung in that the plaintiff has failed or refused to produce the original recording,” Britt said, “for testing or provide any information concerning the background or foundation of the recording.”

The lawsuit was filed in June against the Buford school system by Ingram, who worked as a paraprofessional. She was fired in 2017 after two years of being written up, which she said started only after she circulated a petition calling for a change to the school system’s emblem.

Ingram wanted the color gold, which represented the city’s black school district before the system was integrated in 1969, added to the district’s green and white color scheme.

“I was afraid we were about to lose our heritage,” Ingram said. “I wanted them to know it was important to the community.”

She had always received sterling evaluations before pressing the emblem change, the lawsuit states.

Hamby said in an email to the Journal-Constitution, “This is a personnel and legal matter pertaining to a disgruntled employee.” He also wrote that he’d been instructed “not to comment.”

Penny Poole, president of the Gwinnett County chapter of the NAACP, said the school board must fire Hamby if that is indeed his voice on the recordings: “It’s the only right thing to do.”