BARROW COUNTY, Ga. — The Barrow County Board of Education is calling on a board member to resign, saying she used her elected position in an attempt to dismiss her son’s traffic ticket.
The letter addressed to Beverly Kelley says her actions surrounding the traffic stop are “embarrassing to this Board and unbecoming of a Board Member.”
The letter censuring Kelley stems from a Dec. 7 traffic stop on Apalachee Church Road in Auburn. Kelley was in the front passenger seat while her son was driving. She said the officer initially told her son that he failed to stop at the stop sign, but he disputed that.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
Kelley said that’s when the officer changed her story, saying he “didn’t stop for the allotted amount of time.”
“I said I’m calling the chief because I’m friends with him and let him know that you’ve changed your story with what’s going on,” Kelley told Channel 2’s Bryan Mims.
She also told the officer she knows the Auburn mayor and council members.
“And they would know from working with me that I’m honest,” she said. “So I said, ‘I’m an elected official.’”
The school board’s letter says in a Jan. 21 meeting with the Auburn police chief and the solicitor, Kelley stated she was a school board member “at least two different times and placed your identification/nametag on the desk in front of the solicitor.”
The letter goes on to say that Kelley “repeatedly accused” the officer of retaliatory conduct for issuing the ticket because the officer’s child was injured in the 2024 Apalachee High School shooting that killed four people.
“These actions vilify a shooting victim from this tragic incident for personal gain while undermining the work of the Board and district,” the letter says.
Kelley said a city council member suggested that the officer could be one of the parents suing the school board for the shooting.
“Are you trying to insinuate she pulled him over because she’s not happy with the school board?” she recalled saying. “He goes, ‘I don’t know. It’s worth looking into.’ That’s where that came from.”
TRENDING STORIES:
- Teacher spotted suspected school shooter with possible gun in backpack 42 minutes before attack
- Racist road rage at red light caught on camera
- 2-year-old shot, killed in Sandy Springs, police say
The letter is signed by all of Kelley’s eight fellow board members.
“This action and letter are to provide a united voice through which we make clear that we have lost confidence in your ability to appropriately represent the Board and request you resign from your position,” it says.
But Kelley said she has no intention of stepping down.
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” she said. “If I had done something wrong, I would.”
Mims emailed the school board chair, vice chair and another board member, but did not immediately get a response.
An Auburn police spokesperson said the chief would not be commenting on the case.
Kelley said she’s not running for reelection and calls this an effort to remove her from the board so someone else can be appointed to her seat.
[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]