Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1912-02-16

ana busters were placed IN other
hands, which some of tho warmest
supporters. of the school board now
| believe to have been a tactical mis-
take. Neither man was guilty Of any
less guilt attached to talking about it.
So. at the beginning of the school
term, Barnes was very much present
and Inez Armstrong and the janitors
very much absent
Formal charges were made soon
thereafter to DR.. ]. s. Cooley, school
commissioner for Nassau county. by
a committee of Freeport citizens that
Barnes was morally unit to continue
In village school work. The testi-
mony OF the janitors was made a part
OF the formal bill. 1t was both gem
eral and circumstantial. It was not
confined to recounting one incident,
but carried Barnes through a year.
during which period, as set down, he
had been party to other acts not a
recognized detail of school superin-
tendency.
icsSinony contradictory.
At the hearing before Commission
er Cooley one witness testified that
he had placed himself in as near as
possible the position occupied by the
janitor on the occasion when he had
seen the superintendent and the wom-
an teacher together, and he gave it as
his opinion that Smith could not have
seen the kissing or noted the mani
festations of hysteria This might
have carried some weight were it not
that the superintendent had admitted
the kissing.
Another witness told of Barnes ex-
cellence in higher algebra, which like
wise did not seem to have any fixed
bearing on the incident. There's NO
algebra for kissing.
The overwhelming weight of the
evidence against Barnes was accepted
by DR.. Cooley, who two days before
Christmas declared officially that
Barnes was unfit to teach.
Having been exonerated by the To-
cal school board and engaged for the
new school year, Barnes promptly ap-
pealed to the state superintendent to
have the county commissioners de-
cision set aside.
The Office of superintendent being
now vacant. the F'reeport school board
appointed Principal Roy Leon Smith
of the high school to act as superin-
tendent pending the determination of
Barnes appeal. and in the event of it
being decided adversely to him to con-
tinue until such time as a permanent
successor to that official could be Sc
cured.
Smith, who had remained silent
during the period when Barnes was in
the Iimelight, and having rather pro-
nounced opinion OF the way the kiss
ing incident was handled by the
school board, made public a letter adj
dressed to that body in which he de-
clined the temporary appointment to
the vacant Barnes post. saying he did
not care to serve under the board.
This brought the row to its second
and more spectacular but happily
cleaner stage, which began on Jan. s.
The school board. Of which Samuel r.
Smith-the third OF the name of
Smith in the controversies presi-
dent, dismissed Principal Smith, hold
ing that his conduct in making public
his letter was discDurteous and-in
subordinate.
The board did not want to lose the
principal, but II did want to pre-
serve its own dignity. It urged him to
withdraw the letter and make such
an apology as the circumstances. as
the board saw them seemed to de-
mand. But the principal couldn't see
It.
On the morning OF January s, when
Smith appeared opposite one of the
two Spanish-American war cannon
that stand on the high school lawn.
his namesake OF the school board an
peared on the firing line and told the
principal he must not enter the school.
Some Of the big boys and more spirit
ed girls. having heard this, decided
that they, too. would absent them
selves and thus protest against the
removal or the principal Certain or
the louder instruments OF the high
school band were secured from the