Graham County Sheriff Jerry Crisp
Robbinsville – Accusations are being traded that school and law enforcement officials – and candidates – are playing politics at the expense of school safety.
The issue surfaced publicly at the Oct. 4 meeting of the Graham County Board of Education, when Assistant Superintendent Robert Moody was briefing the board about a variety of topics, including planned evacuation drills.
Evacuation drills are normally held each year but have not been held for several years amid the COVID-19 epidemic. The drills were originally planned for October but were postponed, possibly as late as spring.
As School Board Member Pam Knott probed for details about why this year’s drills were postponed, Moody said it was because he “ticked off” the sheriff.
Later, outside the school board’s presence, Moody told The Graham Star that Graham County Sheriff Jerry Crisp – who lost his reelection bid in the Republican primary – was unhappy that Moody had invited the two candidates for sheriff facing off in the November General Election to an evacuation drill planning meeting.
Moody is Republican sheriff’s candidate Russell Moody’s brother.
When contacted by The Graham Star, Crisp said the reason he withdrew support for October evacuation drills was because he heard from three sources that the drills would be used to make the Sheriff’s Office look bad.
“I told them if they want to make it political, they should postpone it until after the Nov. 8 election,” Crisp said. “If they bumped it to spring, that’s on them.”
Crisp said he is open to participating in an evacuation drill as soon as November – but after the Nov. 8 election, with the sheriff-elect (either Russell or unaffiliated candidate Brad Hoxit) participating, as well.
Robert told the school board that the Graham County Sheriff’s Office’s participation in the evacuation drills is critical.
He said Monday that he plans to postpone the drill until after the turn of the year, to allow the new sheriff time to reorganize his staff and take part in training required of newly elected sheriffs.
Russell said he was uninvolved in any decisions about the evacuation drill but when he was invited, thought it was a bad idea because it could undermine Crisp’s authority during his final weeks in office.
When Crisp and Russell ran against each other in the primary, their campaigns were notable for their lack of mudslinging and animus – although after the election, Crisp was identified in Hoxit’s literature as being a supporter.