Residents and staff give competing accounts about cafeteria incident involving Superintendent Dr. Griffin

Three members of the public and district staff used the public-comment period to address a recent, widely circulated incident involving Superintendent Dr. Griffin.

Maurice Burton, identified himself as a Benton Harbor resident and security worker, recounted that a student was brought to the cafeteria after running from class and becoming involved in a potential fight. Burton said Dr. Griffin asked the student to call her mother and that security staff escorted the student while Dr. Griffin moved to the hallway and assumed a defensive posture as the student became agitated. "I want to set the record straight so that I don't know what you may have heard over social media, but this is what happened," Burton told the board and said he had made a written statement to the Benton Harbor Police Department.

Sharon Brown, co-founder of the African-American History and Literature Gallery and a relative of a student involved, expressed concern about campus safety and the district's selections process and requested transparency from the board. "I ask that you be transparent and perhaps even consider reading the response out loud to my email," Brown said, offering to provide copies of a written message she had sent to trustees.

By contrast, Shenika Davis, a staff member at Benton Harbor High School and the middle school, urged the public to stop what she characterized as slander of Dr. Griffin: "How long is we going to slander Dr. Griffin about this mistake? I feel like she took accountability." Davis said she stands with the superintendent and urged the community to focus on larger district issues such as test scores.

The board listened during the public-comment period and did not engage in detailed comment from the dais; trustees later moved on to other business. The meeting included two closed sessions later in the evening; the transcript does not record closed-session content.