Camden County, North Carolina – It is not coincidental that a story emerges out of North Carolina regarding race given the fierce battle for the Senate seat held by Democrat Kay Hagan. This is one of the key races Democrats know they must win in order to retain control of the Senate. In recent days, Hagans narrow lead has tightened with her polling numbers now at 47%.
This is significant because as the GOP found out in 2006, when they lost control of both the House and Senate, every senator in a tight race that polled at or under 48% ended up losing. Predictably, the Democrat party has turned to invoking the race card in a final bid to prod weary African-American voters to show up to the polls for them. In 2008, Hagan relied on a 95% turnout of registered Black voters to beat Elizabeth Dole.
She will need that same level of turnout to pull out a victory again. So what comes out in the news is a story of a teacher who is accused of confessing to a student that if she had but ten days to live she would take the life of all Black people. She is alleged to have made the remark during lunch break in the cafeteria. Other students concurred that they heard the remark from instructor Kimberly Ashcroft. Based on their word alone, the instructor was put on indefinite unpaid suspension.
However, she was back on the job 48 hours later. Obviously, her union representative reminded school administrators that the process of disciplining teachers involves more than the word of children alone. The matter will now be formally investigated by school administrators. The sheriff’s department will also be referring the case to the local district attorney to see if criminal charges will be filed.