Citizens Plan Protest at CCSD Board Member Kelly's House to Force In Person Attendance at Meetings

Citizens to Protest School Board Members Remote Control Presence at Meetings at His Home in Mt. Pleasant

From Lowcountry Up is Good, PAC, Inc.  To         Lowcountry Press & Media

Date June 22, 2024

Mount Pleasant, SC, USA- Charleston County School Board member Ed Kelly’s home in Carolina Park, a development in Mt. Pleasant near Wando High School will become the setting for a sidewalk protest on Monday, June 24 should Kelly choose, again to participate in another board meeting over the internet instead of occupying his chair at CCSD Headquarters,  75 Calhoun Street. The demonstration is sponsored by Lowcountry Up is Good, PAC. Inc.

Sympathetic participants can sign up to participate in the demonstration and adjacent social gathering on eventbright at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dont-chicken-out-show-up-ed-kelly-protest-party-tickets-929641963137?aff=oddtdtcreator

• The sidewalk in front of Kelly’s home will become a free speech zone with up to 20 people holding signs, chanting and singing. The theme of the demonstration is Don’t Chicken Out Ed Kelly. The protest will be paired with an adjacent social.  The pot luck supper at the party will consist of any chicken but Chick-fil-A, salad and desert. 

The homes of 49 of Kelly’s neighbors, everyone living within 500 feet of his house, received a written notice of the demonstration on June 20 in a doorknob hanger bag which also contained information on DiversCity and a small package of gummy bears. One resident was hostile. Another demanded that DiversCity never visit her home again. However, several residents were very excited about the demonstration and are eager to become involved. You can read the notice online. 

There are no plans to block vehicular or pedestrian traffic. A Mt. Pleasant Police presence is anticipated. A safety plan for a constitutionally lawful and peaceful protest will be drafted to be shared with the police department and the community. 

CCSD Board meetings have become dysfunctional, oppressive horror shows. Ed Kelly was removed from Chairmanship of the CCSD board last year after allegations that he threatened a transgender staff member with armed violence. Some meetings have been over six hours long and contain lengthy secret executive sessions. A major controversy looms over the board Monday with new allegations of misappropriation of Covid funds, a cover up and racially biased treatment of an alleged whistleblower. The board also has to conduct a public hearing and attempt to pass a budget, which Kelly has been stalling by fighting a pay increase for teachers. 

This demonstration is part of the DiversCity Charleston project, a coordinated resistance to the attempt by Moms for LIberty, Unity City and other right wing religious groups to take over public life in the SC Lowcountry. DiversCity will network existing progressive and tolerance celebrating organizations and faith communities across the Lowcountry to strengthen and maintain our community’s imperfect, but enduring 350 year tradition of acceptance and freedom.

For more information on DiversCity Charleston contact spokesperson Merrill Chapman at (843) 200-1977 or William Hamilton at (843) 870-5299. More information can be found at https://tinyurl.com/DiversCityCHS  online.

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