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Strider 1.0

     When I signed a contract to teach at Strider in April 2006, I was just looking for a better experience than what I had endured for over six months in Indianola. What I was unaware of was the power that Coach Joe Bradshaw had over the school--as well as Tallahatchie County, the state of Mississippi, and the MPSA/MAIS. The first time I felt this influence was at the end of the 2005-06 year when I subbed; and he felt I was going above and beyond what Mrs Sherry wanted me to to. A few months later he kept me and Pat from moving into our trailer when he promised; we had to spend a month with Leon and Mary while I finally finished a graduate degree in twice as much time as I should have. While I tried to teach to the best of my abilities I was facing harassment, ridicule, and threats from many sides (Bradshaw, Nash, Pitts, Winters, Angie, the Board, and even the "Gentle Giant" Coach Aven). I was getting the picture that Bradshaw was an absolute tyrant, and that he didn't want me around because I was not a coach (I also felt that my efforts to start FCA made him turn against me). After he lied about why I was non-renewed, I started to wish that something bad would happen to him and the Board members who sided with him--and after my last check was less than I thought it would be. Thankfully I used some legal help from the MPE to get my back pay.

     NOTEWORTHY:  The issue of back pay would revisit eleven years later, as my second tenure there also ended prematurely. When Bradshaw passed away in 2011, I gradually came to a point where I could forgive him for how he treated me.  In the summer of 2012 after Pat and I came to Grenada to stay with Mary after Leon died, I tried to get back there under a new administration (a former coach at Grenada High who was Jerry's position coach), but they had already filled the position.

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