GRANGER, Ind. — The City of Elkhart has come under intense backlash for a decision to restrict all commenting on its Facebook page. The move comes after the City had been facing major scrutiny online for a host of controversial issues, including a financial scandal involving the Lerner Theater which REAL News Michiana will be covering next week. According to the City of Elkhart, the decision was made to ensure Facebook was a “safe space” for employees and staff from online “abuse.”
While all local TV news outlets have covered the issue, ABC57 was one of the first to publish a story about the controversy. However, none of the outlets, including ABC57, were interested in the area’s largest school district doing the exact same thing late last year, when the Penn Harris Madison School Corporation restricted commenting. It turns out, PHM’s Communications Director, Lucha Ramey (who was responsible for the censorship move), is a former TV news producer who is married to ABC57 General Manager Aaron Ramey.
PHM BANS COMMENTING
Lucha Ramey made the move to restrict commenting following backlash on a Veterans Day post she made on the school district’s Facebook page on November 10th. During that time, the district was facing extreme scrutiny for steps it took to ban a parent of four from all school grounds for making a meme that was critical of PHM School Board President Chris Riley. That parent is a retired Army veteran who did combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. To this day, commenting on PHM’s Facebook content is still restricted.
BACKGROUND: RAMEY LEADS THE WAY IN TARGETING FREE SPEECH
In January, REAL News Michiana obtained documents showing Lucha Ramey stalked a parent online for at least three years before eventually filing a false report with the police claiming the parent was a threat to the school district. A public records request from RNM shows the St. Joseph County Police Department received a PDF file from PHM Communications Director Lucha Ramey in November of 2023. The PDF contained nearly every social media post made by one parent on YouTube since 2021. Ramey even sent recordings of some posts that had been deleted for several months. Despite a concerted effort by PHM’s department head to defame and harm the parent, Detectives quickly determined the parent DID NOT threaten ANYONE and was simply being critical of the school district’s policies, procedures, staff and leadership.
“(Three videos) had since been removed, but I had record (sic) of them in other ways.” Ramey wrote in a November email to a detective with the SJCPD.
In all, Ramey sent a SEVEN page PDF file with a total of 80 links to YouTube videos from the parent, many with false statements regarding their content. Ramey also sent links of videos from nearly every time the parent spoke during board meetings dating back several years.
“I did not find any threatening content posted by (the parent).” The SJCPD detective wrote in his report regarding the parent’s YouTube videos sent to him by Ramey. “While watching the videos of (the parent) speaking at board meetings I did not hear any threats made by (the parent).”
Despite the findings of the detective, PHM banned the parent from school property for nearly three months while falsely claiming he made threats against PHM.
It turns out, the parent was banned from school property just one day after the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights released findings from an investigation showing PHM discriminated against middle school children based on race and sex. The investigation stemmed from a complaint filed by the parent in early 2023.
RAMEY LIES
In the document sent by Ramey to the SJCPD, she makes several false claims about the parent’s posts, attempting to make him appear to be a radical white supremacist. While the parent is white man, he is in a bi-racial marriage and has four children with her who are in the district. His wife recently received her citizenship, as she immigrated to the country several years ago.
While Ramey is aware of the above facts, she claims in her message to an SJCPD detective that the parent lambasted “immigrants” during public comment at a PHM Board meeting October of 2022.
“The parent refers to masked, triple vaxxed ‘immigrant parents’ are in the minority;
‘we are the majority’ referring to himself & like minded parents.” Ramey wrote.
If you look at the video, it’s clear the parent is criticizing Democrats and never mentions anything about immigrants.
Ramey also attempted to make the parent appear radical by referring to REAL News Michiana in the document on multiple occasions. That’s because the parent has used investigative stories by RNM when speaking at PHM Board meetings and when creating social media posts.
RAMEY’S JOB
It’s unclear why Ramey was involved in any investigation regarding the safety of the school district. PHM currently has a Safety Team consisting of several full-time employees (including retired law enforcement officials) and a School Resource Officer. Ramey is not part of that team.
Ramey also claims her compilation of the parent’s social media posts was done at the request of the Prosecutor’s Office, however, inquiries to the Prosecutor’s Office by School Board Member Matt Chaffee and Indiana State Representative Jake Teshka showed the Prosecutor’s Office was not involved in the investigation in any form.
RNM reached out to Ramey and Superintendent Jerry Thacker asking why Ramey was involved in this investigation. RNM sent Ramey an email, called her cell phone and called her office (all things that can be found in her communication with SJCPD in the PDF file toward the top of the story). RNM never received a response.
RAMEY’S RADICALISM
Ramey has been an open radical enthusiast when it comes to issues such as Critical Race Theory, Gender Theory and tenets of communism.
“What I have sat here and listened to for the past 20 minutes or so, in and of itself, is the definition of microagression.” Ramey said, before demanding the board recognize her skin color. “I am a person of color who is also biracial.”
“It’s the equivalent of someone coming up to you and saying, ‘I have cancer’ and you are the doctor and have to cure of cancer and you look over that person and refuse to give it to them.” Seeming to suggest that CRT is the cure for racism.
In fact, the parent referenced in this story created a YouTube video criticizing Ramey for her comments.
Multiple formal complaints have also been filed by parents for Ramey’s unethical behavior.
FURTHER BACKGROUND ON THE PARENT’S BAN FROM SCHOOL
The parent, Ben Dallas, was banned from school property from mid-September until early December. 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 ignoring in the PHM School Corporation.
Chris Riley also submitted a report to the St. Joseph County Police Department claiming the above video was threatening gun violence against him and PHM. Investigators concluded their investigation on October 5th, determining no crime was committed. However, the ban on the parent remained.
INVESTIGATION REOPENED
For nearly a month, a minority of board members along with Indiana State Representative Jake Teshka questioned school leadership about the continued no-trespassing order with little to no response. Finally, on November 3rd, Superintendent Jerry Thacker told board members that the ban remained because the St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s Office was investigating. However, inquiries to the prosecutor’s office by both Teshka and School Board Member Matt Chaffee show the Prosecutor’s Office never received a report and were not involved in any investigation.
Three days later, on November 6th, Lucha Ramey sent the St. Joseph County Police Department the PDF file with 80 links to videos Dallas had created dating back several years. This action caused SJCPD to reopen its investigation more than a month after the initial investigation had been closed.
According to the police report, nothing provided by the school corporation contained threats, however, detectives were forced to view all of the videos. Members of the PHM School Board and school leadership were able to use the reopened “investigation” as cover to maintain its no-trespass order on Dallas.
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 in 2023 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 in October, the Penn Harris Madison School Corporation had 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 was 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.
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