The monthly agenda of the Buckingham County School Board lists “Public Comment” as a regular agenda item.

Public Comment.

Two simple words with such powerful meaning.

The word “public” is defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “accessible to or shared by all members of the community.” Comment is defined as “an observation or remark expressing an opinion or attitude.”

A period for public comments occurs in the meetings of all local governing bodies, as it should, providing a time for anyone to step forward and say what is on their mind about a matter under consideration by that school board or board of supervisors or one for which those public officials have responsibility.

The Buckingham County School Board's agenda lists no restrictions on subject matter that may or may not be addressed during the Public Comment period. The agenda does not stipulate, for example, “Public Comment for everybody except those who wish to speak in support of naming the elementary school on Route 20 in honor of Buckingham native Carter G. Woodson, the son of former slaves who persevered to become the Father of Black History.”

Ginger Stanley, longtime Executive Director of the Virginia Press Association, has a vast experience and she answered me this way when I asked if she had ever heard of restricting the subject matter during the Public Comments portion of public meetings of elected governing bodies:

“I have heard of time limits, and limits to how many times a person can speak at one meeting,” Ms. Stanley told me, “but not subject limits as long as it relates to a matter before the public body or to a matter in which the public body has responsibility. This is not addressed in FOIA (Freedom Of Information Act) but sounds like a first amendment right to free speech.”

To restrict or limit public comments during the Public Comment period on the agenda-especially when they were directly related to an item under consideration, with expected action in the coming months, by the publicly-elected school board-is difficult to understand.

Whether or not the deadline had passed for the submission of names to be considered for the elementary school doesn't seem relevant. Mr. Woodson's name was submitted last month, in writing and well in advance of the school board's deadline. I believe public comments in support of that submission of Carter G. Woodson Elementary School were entirely appropriate and germane to a meeting of the Buckingham County School Board during its Public Comments portion of the agenda. I know the School Board said “suggestions” for the school naming needed to be made in writing, but nobody was trying to verbally nominate a new name after the deadline for written suggestions, merely endorse a name submitted according to the School Board's rules.

Thankfully, School Board members Sherry Ragland and Ed Wise intervened-and credit to them-and were successful in their advocacy of letting at least one or two people in attendance speak on behalf of the group supporting the naming in honor of Mr. Woodson. The majority of those citizens in attendance nodded in agreement when asked if they would be satisfied if Mr. Charles White was allowed to speak, and Mr. White is a fine spokesman for this cause. The school on Route 20 certainly should be named Carter G. Woodson Elementary School, as I advocated fully in a recent editorial. The Buckingham County Board of Supervisors shares that belief, one fervently held by so many people in Buckingham-some thousand-plus names are reportedly on letters of support. The Board of Supervisors demonstrated its commitment in that belief through a formal vote last week urging the School Board to name the school after Mr. Woodson. It is indisputably merited. There is a school named after Mr. Woodson coast to coast, just not in the county where he was born.

It is a pity that Peter Francisco, who heard Patrick Henry's famous “Give me liberty or give me death” speech with his own ears, was not at the school board meeting. Had that Revolutionary War hero, and longtime Buckingham resident, been there I believe he would have made certain that anyone else who wanted to speak in support of naming the school after Carter G. Woodson was able to do so. Mr. Francisco fought a war to win freedom and create a nation for which the First Amendment of its Constitution was, and remains, freedom of speech. Plus, he was as big as the Washington Monument.

The School Board, however, has a chance to reach out to those citizens next month and walk all the way through the door Ms. Ragland and Mr. Wise tried to open for board members and those wishing to address them.

Nobody is perfect. I have great personal experience with that truth. We're all human. Any of us can have a bad day-and the School Board is getting slammed with stressful and unjustified state budget cuts. It is what we do with the next day, and the days that follow, which matters most.

Think of the young people of Buckingham County who would attend Carter G. Woodson Elementary School and each day look up at that name. A name that would tell them that they could be born in Buckingham, they could be raised in Buckingham, they could go to school in Buckingham and then they could go and change the world.

The name of the great educator Carter G. Woodson on a school in Buckingham County spells out this message to the county's children: the sky is the limit, there are no chains that can bind you, your future is what you make of it and we, the people of Buckingham County, believe in you and want, so very much, for you to believe in yourself.

-JKW-