Principal Under Scrutiny Over Rapper T.I. Appearance

HENRY COUNTY, Ga. — Some Henry County parents called Channel 2 Action News concerned not only about a visitor to their children's school, but also how the principal reacted when they questioned him about it.

The entire incident involves Atlanta rapper T.I., Woodland Middle School and the principal's e-mail exchanges with a parent.

After trying to reason with principal Dr. Terry Oatts for six weeks, Tom Myers, who has four daughters in the Henry County School System, contacted Channel 2 Action News reporter Justin Farmer to share the e-mail correspondence he had with Oatts.

Myers told Farmer that he and his wife, Candi, as well as other parents, simply want to know ahead of time who will be talking to their children during school assemblies.

In an e-mail to Oatts, Myers took issue with the selection of T.I. as a guest speaker because the rapper, whose real name is Clifford Harris Jr., is a convicted felon.

In early March, the Myers said one of their girls came home and said, "Guess who was at school today? T.I., the rapper."

Last year, Harris served a one-year sentence on federal weapons charges for possession of machine guns and silencers. His criminal history dates back to 1998.

"Had I had the opportunity to not let them go, I would have had them sit out," said Tom Myers.

Myers wrote an e-mail to Oatts, which read in part: "In the future, if T.I. or any other convicted felon needs to perform community service, ask for parental permission to allow our children to be exposed to these questionable individuals."

Myers said Oatts replied with the following e-mail: "I thought about asking a guy who snorted cocaine and got arrested for DUI when he was 30 to come and speak to our kids, but President George W. Bush was not available."

"I could not believe that he would put that in an e-mail or that he would say that," said Myers.

Farmer contacted Oatts for a comment, but Oatts declined.

A representative for Henry County Schools confirmed that T.I. did speak at Woodland on March 5 and that parents were not notified in advance. The representative went on to say that there is no current policy for notification, even though for a recent World War II documentary about the Holocaust shown at school, parents were notified in advance and had the ability to opt out.

In another e-mail from Oatts to Myers, Oatts said: "Mr. Harris has never been convicted of homicide. We would not be able to adequately staff our states general assembly, our U.S. Congress or the executive branch of our government using your apparent standards."

School officials told Farmer that they were very surprised to hear about the e-mail exchange and said they are now looking into it. They also said they'll look into the speaker's policy.

WSBTV