LYNCHBURG, Va. (WFXR) – A Lynchburg School Board member apologized for his actions at Tuesday night’s school board meeting.
Christian DePaul was reprimanded for taking down former Superintendent Dr. Crystal Edward’s portrait and replacing it with a picture of a character from the 1985 film ‘The Goonies.’ The incident happened at a January 21 Discipline Committee meeting and the board says the image was discovered by LCS staff the following Monday.
“What I thought was going to be a joke obviously turned out to be nothing close to that,” DePaul said at Tuesday’s board meeting.
DePaul apologized to the board, but particularly to the interim Superintendent Dr. Ben Copeland, who took over Edwards’ role when she retired.
“The biggest offense I have is against Dr. Copeland,” he said. “I respect, appreciate, honor this man. We’ve had a cordial relationship, and I took it to an extreme.”
DePaul continued to say he would meet with city council.
“I wonder how I can proceed as a board member with so many serious things happening at this point,” he said.
Board Chair Dr. Atul Gupta removed DePaul from both the Finance Committee and the Discipline Committee. DePaul was chair of both.
“You chair the discipline committee, and we have kids coming here week after week putting posters in restrooms at the high school and saying I did it as a prank,” said Gupta. “The same standards should apply for us in terms of accountability.”
DePaul said if city council asks him to resign, he will.