Antigay School Official May Keep Job

Johnson said Department of Education commissioner Tom Kimbrell has been
in contact with Midland School District superintendent Dean Stanley.
Johnson says Stanley should be back shortly in Pleasant Plains, the north
Arkansas city where the Midland School District is based. Kimbrell was
on a conference call when contacted on Wednesday, and could not be
reached as of press time.

As far as counseling for students at
the Midland School District, Johnson doesn’t know what’s being down at
its schools, which she described as 200 miles from Little Rock.

“Frankly,
we are concerned,” she said. “We don’t want there to be any bad
consequences that can be traced back to this. We have a unit that deals
with civil rights complaints—we’ll be ready and watchful.”

Johnson added that school board members like McCance are required to attend six hours of education-related training.

“Things
like [McCance’s postings] would come under our code of ethics for
professional educators,” she said, adding the caveat that, “I think a
lot of policy and law has yet to catch up with [social media].”

The
Arkansas Times reached McCance on his cell phone on Wednesday, but he
refused to comment further than saying the matter “had been blown out of
proportion.”