Georgia School Principal Under Fire Over Rapper T.I. Appearence

Dr. Oates, the Principal at Woodland Middle School in Henry County, GA. has gotten some parents outraged for not informing them that rapper T.I., who’s real name is Clifford Harris Jr., was invited to speak to the children of Woodland Middle.

T.I. was recently released from prison to a halfway house and put on house arrest after a judge ordered him to serve a 1 year sentence for illegally purchasing a stash of semi-automatic weapons. He was also ordered to perform 1,500 hours of community service, a thousand of which he performed before he began his sentence by traveling to schools across the country and encouraging kids to stay in school and away from drugs and violence.

Last month, T.I. was invited to speak in front of the children of Woodland Middle school in Stockbridge, GA. The principle of the school, Dr. Oates, has now come under fire by outraged parents of some of those children for failing to inform them of who was coming to speak to their kids. Parents sent Dr. Oates several emails expressing their thoughts on the situation.

Tom Myers, the father of four daughters who attend the school, sent Dr. Oates an email about his concern for letting a convicted felon around his children.

“In the future, if T.I. or any other convicted felon needs to perform community service, ask for parental permission to allow our children to be exposed to these questionable individuals,” said Myers in the email.

Dr. Oates responded in his defence.

“I thought about asking a guy who snorted cocaine and got arrested for DUI when he was 30 to come and speak to our kids, but President George W. Bush was not available.”

Another email that Dr. Oates replied to one parent said as followed according to Atlanta’s Channel 2 Action News.

“Mr. Harris has never been convicted of homicide. We would not be able to adequately staff our states general assembly, our U.S. Congress or the executive branch of our government using your apparent standards,” Dr. Oates allegedly wrote in an email.

School officials are now investigating the emails.

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