(DailyDig.com) – Because the head of the Ohio school board was behaving like a dictator at a recent meeting, one of the board’s members chanted mockingly and did the Nazi salute. Simon Patry, president of the Tipp City School Board of Education, resigned after a heated discussion just before the meeting ended.
There are 2,356 children attending school in Tipp City, which is situated 16 miles to the north of Dayton.
When a member of the board, Anne Zakkour, tried to interrupt Patry at a meeting on September 5 regarding the lack of openness around ongoing district projects, Patry cut her off because he didn’t want to engage with her.
Patry ordered her to be quiet. He warned her to be quiet and not bother him. He warned her that he would no longer put up with her chatter.
Zakkour was insulted by the dictator president’s harsh rebuke, so she exclaimed, “Oh, Sieg Heil!” and raised her left arm in a Nazi salute at Patry. Patry and the other board members ignored Zakkour’s gesture, and Patry resumed his speech.
Zakkour said after the meeting that Patry had been behaving like a dictator while serving on the board for years. She was now fed up with his demands for absolute allegiance. Her response was meant to be a mocking display of surrender to a board official who was behaving autocratically.
Patry announced his resignation at the conclusion of the working session. He said that his resignation from the board of education will take effect at the stroke of midnight on the same day. His immediate resignation as president was also made clear.
Patry moved to install Amber Drum, the board’s vice president, as board president, though not before Zakkour irritated Patry by asking for a definition of some of the terms related to Drum’s position and her tenure.
The website for the school system has been updated to reflect the new roles.
It is not known whether Zakkour’s action prompted Patry’s resignation.
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