The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-10-26
A SENSATIONAL TRIAL
In Which the Principals Were a School
Commissioner and a Teacher.


sylvania, Ga. Oct. "a lively and
! sensational trial took place in sylvania
! last Saturday before the county board
of education. The case was that Of
County School Commissioner J. c. Bryan
against J. Currie Thompson, teacher. and
the charges were neglect of duty, cruelty
to pupils and immortality. Politics was
interjected into the trial by the defend
ant, and the feeling in the matter on both
sides runs high all over the county.
J. Currie Thompson came to Screven
several years ago from California and
got a position as teacher in the lower
part of the county. Since then he has
taught several schools in this and neigh
boring counties, and has also contributed
a number of Well-written articles to the
papers here. Latterly he has taken an
active interest in politics, being a red-hot
popuHst, ana writing long articles and
making speeches in behalf of his party.
A short time ago he began a school at
Jackson Academy He soon became dis
satisfied with the pay he was receiving
from the school commissioner and wrote
an open letter to the board of education
and had it publshd in the Peoples Press,
the populst paper here, in which he used
some very strong language concerning
the commissioner. After the article was
written, but before II was published, the
school commissioner had already pre-
ferred the charges above stated against
Thompson, and he went down to serve
the papers on him.
He found Currie at the academy and
told him that he had come to suspend
his school until the board could look into
the charges. Then the war opened.
Thompson swore that his school shouldn't
be suspended, and after heated discus
sion in which several slang phrases were
used and pistol and rife played con-
spicuous part though neither of them
were fired, the commissioner finally came
off with a chart and map that blonged to
the county, having summoned thompson
before the board of education which was
to meet here last Saturday.
Saturday morning the school commits
sioner's office was crowded with patrons
and spectators. and many not being able
to get inside stood on chairs and boxes in
the hall to hear the trial that promised
to be so spicy. Nor were they disappoint-
ed. Never perhaps, in any court, was
a case more hotly conducted, and at any
moment II seemed ready to terminate in
a personal encounter between the commits
sioner and the teacher. But for the cool
ness of the former and the occasional in
reference of members of the board,
collision could not have been avoided.
The trial lasted about two hours. being
conducted on one side by the commits
sioner and on the other by Mr.. Thompson
himself. The latter asserted boldly and
frequently that it was a case of political
persecution, Mr.. Bryan replying that had
it been any other teacher. democrat or
populist, he would have pursued the same
course.
Thompson made many charges against
the commissioner, claiming that he had
paid teachers who were his relatives more
than he had others of the same grade
who were not related to him, and that he
paid democratic teachers more than he
did those of the populist persuasion. The
commissioner explained all the cases cited
to the satisfaction of the board, showing
that small schools were sometimes paid
more in proportion to the number of schol-
ars than larger ones, and also that the
merit of the teachers was sometimes
taken into consideration.
A continued cross-fre was kept up
through the whole trial. which the chair
man of the board found 1t impossible to
keep down. The air was charged. After
both sides had closed the board consd-
cred the case in secret session and sus-
tAtned the commissioner charges. They
decided, however, that they would let
Mr.. Thompson finish his present public
term, and then his license could be re-
voked. This favor he refused to accept at
their hands, and denounced the decision.
He has written a long article for this
weeks Press In which 1t is understood he
viii score all who were connected with
his trial, and make a direct personal at
tack upon Commissioner Bryant.
Thompson has state license and in the
outset of the case he insisted that neither
the commissioner nor the board had any
authority to revoke it or to suspend his
school, holding that his license was re-
vokable only by the state school COM
missioner.
With possibly two exceptions, all
Thompsons patrons were populists, and
these latter are standing by him. They ex-
press themselves well satisfied with him
as a teacher, and are bitter against the
commissioner and the board.
Thompson now lives in the Black creek
district, which gave a populist majority
in the last election and which is the home
district of Commissioner Bryant. Several
times during the trial he exclaimed
That Black creek majority is what did
IT." But II seems the board of education
did not agree with him.
The case has BEEN and still is, the talk
of the county, and 1t bids fair to become a
famous one in the state.
THREE FIRES.