Woodland Middle School Principal, Dr. Terry Oatts, Under Fire for Allowing Rapper T.I. to Speak at School

Georgia principal, Dr. Terry Oatts, under fire for allowing rapper Clifford Harris Jr., or T. I. to appear at Woodland Middle School. Oatts said "at least it wasn't George Bush."

Some parents in Henry County, Ga., are upset because rapper T.I., whose real name is Clifford Harris Jr., visited Woodland Middle School and the response they received from the principal Dr. Terry Oatts at his decision to have the rapper on school grounds. Tom Myers, who has four daughters in the Henry County School System contacted Channel 2 Action News to discuss the response he received from the principal about the fact that he, and other parents simply wanted to know ahead of time who will be speaking to their children during school assemblies. Myers took offense to the rapper being a guest speaker at the school.

Here is an excerpt from Channel 2 Action News' website: 

In an e-mail to Oatts, Myers took issue with the selection of T.I. as a guest speaker because the rapper, whose real name is Clifford Harris Jr., is a convicted felon. In early March, the Myers said one of their girls came home and said, “Guess who was at school today? T.I., the rapper.”  Last year, Harris served a one-year sentence on federal weapons charges for possession of machine guns and silencers. His criminal history dates back to 1998.“ Had I had the opportunity to not let them go, I would have had them sit out,” said Tom Myers. Myers wrote an e-mail to Oatts, which read in part: “In the future, if T.I. or any other convicted felon needs to perform community service, ask for parental permission to allow our children to be exposed to these questionable individuals.”

Myers said Oatts replied with the following e-mail: “I thought about asking a guy who snorted cocaine and got arrested for DUI when he was 30 to come and speak to our kids, but President George W. Bush was not available.” “I could not believe that he would put that in an e-mail or that he would say that,” said Myers.

In another e-mail from Oatts to Myers, Oatts said: “Mr. Harris has never been convicted of homicide. We would not be able to adequately staff our states general assembly, our U.S. Congress or the executive branch of our government using your apparent standards."

T.I. spoke at the school on March 5 and a school representative maintains that parents were notified in advance. Here's my two cents. T.I. was just released from a half-way house, he has not reintegrated himself with society yet and it was premature to have him speak on how he turned his life around. I could understand if he had been out of prison for a few years and had a verifiable track record of rehabilitation. If I'm not mistaken, it seems that during his first week of complete freedom, he chose to party it up in a club, rather than being with his family.