MISHAWAKA, Ind. — Three members of the Penn Harris Madison Board of School Trustees voted against launching an investigation into potential crimes the school corporation may have committed against a PHM parent. PHM Board Member Matt Chaffee brought up the concerns at the beginning of the school corporation’s meeting on Monday night, hoping to get the issue added to the agenda. While Chaffee and Board Member James Garrett voted in favor of the investigation, Board VP Ryan McCullough, Member Dana Sullivan and Member Claire Roach all voted “no.”
“Why would Ms. Sullivan, Mrs. Roach and Mr. McCullough vote no?” Chaffee stated at the end of Monday’s meeting. “What happened? Why wouldn’t you want to know those answers? Is it because you already know them?”
All of this stems from apparent political retaliation taken against a parent of four children in the district who was banned from school property for two-and-a-half months after he posted a meme that was critical of PHM and its board president, Chris Riley. Riley was not at Monday’s meeting.
BACKGROUND
PHM parent Ben Dallas was issued a no-trespass warning on September 20th of this year. According to a letter Dallas received, the ban stemmed from a video he created and posted to YouTube in which he uses a popular meme from the movie The Matrix. The meme shows the main character, Neo, dodging bullets being fired at him. In the meme created by Dallas, Neo is depicted as school board president Chris Riley. Instead of dodging bullets, Riley is dodging words that come across the page. Those words include “accountability,” “hiring sex workers” and “implicit bias” — all issues Riley has been accused of dodging in the PHM School Corporation. Riley then filed a report with the St. Joseph County Police Department claiming the video was a threat of gun violence.
The St. Joseph County Police Department concluded its investigation on October 5th, determining no crime was committed. However, the ban on the parent remained and weeks later RNM learned the SJCPD reopened the investigation, only to close it earlier this month with the same results. Further, the SJCPD only closed the “reopened” investigation after Board Member Matt Chaff requested the Indiana State Police step in.
HOW WAS THE INVESTIGATION REOPENED?
Questions about how and why the investigation into the parent was reopened still remain unanswered, with certain members of the school board being left in the dark. However, Dallas has been extremely critical of St. Joseph County Sheriff Bill Redman. In the past, Dallas has created and posted videos to his popular YouTube channel, calling out Redman’s apparent corruption including his misuse of tens of thousands of dollars in DARE funds. RNM has also learned SJCPD Sheriff Bill Redman and Board President Chris Riley have a fairly close relationship. In fact, Redman endorsed Riley last year.
OBVIOUS RETALIATION
Dallas has been extremely vocal and critical of PHM, its administration and school board members for several years. He has spoken out about Critical Race Theory, Diversity Equity and Inclusion, radical gender theory and the district’s employment of a drag queen who works as a paraprofessional with developmentally disabled children.
While the district claims Dallas was banned from school property for the “threatening” meme, the banishment came only ONE DAY after the US Department of Education came down with a ruling showing the school district violated the civil rights of straight white students — all stemming from a formal complaint filed by Dallas.
Dallas was also successful in another complaint that he filed against PHM earlier this year in which the school district violated Indiana open door laws. That case is currently being used as an example by the state as how school boards should not behave in an article titled “Guidance from the Public Access Counselor on Public Comment at School Board Meetings.”
One week after PHM banned Dallas from school grounds, the PHM School Board Vice President sent Dallas’ employer a message on Linkedin in an attempt to get the father of 4 fired from his private sector job.
“I thought you should be aware that one of your employees… uses these platforms to post some disturbing social media post.” PHM School Board Vice President Ryan McCullough wrote in his message on September 28th. While a screenshot of the message can be seen below, RNM has redacted portions that could identify the parent’s employer.
VETERAN DISCRIMINATION
REAL News Michiana learned from multiple sources last month, the Penn Harris Madison School Corporation has been maintaining the ban because Dallas is a combat veteran. According to two sources who wish not to be named out of fear of retaliation, Superintendent Jerry Thacker said PHM is finding ways to keep the ban against Dallas because he is a veteran and he owns guns. Dallas retired from the Army in 2016. He did two combat tours, one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.
In October, RNM learned the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights (OCR) opened another investigation into the Penn Harris Madison School Corporation focusing on apparent retaliation the school district has taken against Dallas.
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