School Board President Will Smith fully qualified to be a Trump cabinet appointee

It’s almost a right of passage to be accused of sexual impropriety if you want to get somewhere in the Trump administration. Well, we’ve got our own version here in Dayton. For the last two years, school board member Jocelyn Rhynard has attempted to get the School Board to put a policy in place to stop sexual harassment by board members. Not only has the board ignored her, so has the local newspaper. This was what was communicated to the Dayton Daily news in September of 2022 by a PR firm (not mine):

Hello,
I wanted to alert you to a situation at the Dayton School Board, which may or may not yet be on your radar.
Two meetings ago, important legislation was introduced that would have laid the foundation for some baseline protections for board members, should they fall victim to any inappropriate sexual behavior, sexual harassment or sexual misconduct (and other such behaviors) from other board members. The legislation would have also outlined (future forward) a way for such behavior to be reported and created a safety measure for board members to feel secure should
such behavior occur in the future. Again, this measure would have been future forward and applied to instances that have not yet occurred, though the board is aware that there has been a previous need for the measures.
The last two meetings have displayed some very clear examples of what has been happening as retribution for the introduction of the legislation, which did not pass, as well as some clear aggressions toward Jocelyn Rhynard, who has championed the measure and also made as clear as she legally can, her own experiences in why the measure is desperately needed; however, those have been unattended by the local media, I think largely due to some staffing changes at the local publications.
I wanted to alert you to this situation, and also include some information to bring you up to speed should you be interested in looking into it. This is an important story, and frankly, the fact that it has been missed and not covered locally is a huge oversight, misstep and scary error on the part of the local media. The fact that this behavior has gone unnoticed and unreported is troublesome, but also I think, a bit indicative as to what is going on here locally.
I have pulled for you the youtube link of the most recent meeting and bookmarked it for you at Jocelyn’s statement about what has been happening:

This is followed by a statement from Karen, which I think you will also find interesting. Separately, I pulled for you the previous board meeting, in which the legislation was voted on, and you can clearly see some of the hostility and the environment that has been created.

The next board meeting is Tuesday. I am hopeful that someone will be watching, as this situation is accelerating, and it is worthy of observation at the minimum. The fact that no one is watching this unfold is disturbing.
Thank you for your attention in this matter.

The Dayton Daily newsless ignored the story.

What’s been missing is the exact details of what happened to Rhynard at the Council of Great City Schools. This is the statement that Rhynard delivered to the board and their attorneys, where she was basically told to sue them.

I’ve confirmed the details mentioned in this statement, dated April 4, 2022, with some of the people that were there and are mentioned.

This is a statement of events that occurred from March 18-22, 2022, as best as I can recall at this time. I am writing it knowing that I most likely will not remember all the details, but I will be as thorough as I can possibly be.

On March 18, 2022, I traveled to Washington DC on the same flight as President Will Smith for the Council of Great City Schools conference at the Mayflower Hotel. Smith and I did not know each other well, and have had a good professional relationship thus far but with little to no personal interaction. I had just attended a conference a few months prior with another board member, Dr Gabriela Pickett, and it was a very positive relationship building experience with her and I was hoping to be able to do the same with Smith. We exchanged pleasantries while waiting for the delayed flight, did not sit next to each other but he joked that I didn’t want to sit next to him.

We took the Metro to the hotel together, and checked in at the same time. I checked into room 451 and his room was on the 10th floor. We went to our own rooms and unpacked with vague plans for dinner, since the conference wasn’t supposed to start until the next morning.

I texted him at 6:42 p.m. telling him I was going down to the hotel restaurant and get a glass of wine and think about dinner, no pressure to join me, do whatever works best for him. I went to the bar, got a drink, made small talk with people around me, until Smith showed up a little while later. We moved to a booth and had dinner and drinks together. The conversation was light and friendly. A few minutes before 10 I realized I had to find a pharmacy to pick up a few items, so I left quickly and Smith told me he was going to meet up with a cousin who lives in the area. He texted me at 11:46 p.m. asking me if I found an open pharmacy, but I didn’t respond.

The next day we went to a session together, did not sit right next to each other, but were close. At one point the large session conversation got heated, I could tell Smith was upset, we texted back and forth and I encouraged him to speak up.

I went to a different session, we met up and sat at the same table at lunch and chatted with other conference attendees.

At 6:25 p.m. I texted him that I was headed to the conference reception, and that I was searching for a good restaurant. I asked him what his plans were. He responded “you” which I thought was a typo, so I ignored it.

We texted back and forth a bit, I found a taco stand, then we arranged to meet in the lobby and walk around the area. It was a Saturday night with very warm weather, lots of people were around. We started walking toward the taco stand, then walked past &pizza, a pizza place that someone recommended to him, so we went there for dinner instead. After we ate, we walked across the street to CIty Tap House. It was a casual setting, lots of students, and we sat at the bar next to each other and ordered drinks.

We were talking a bit more about ourselves, something that I’ve done with other colleagues in this situation but it’s never crossed a line. We asked each other questions, but to me it didn’t feel flirty.

We stayed there for a while, had a few drinks, the conversation lagged a bit, but then I started to pick up strange signals that I first dismissed. Smith said something about me being “hot” and got a little touchy on my back but I again thought I was just reading too much into it, but decided I wanted to end my time with him.

As we left the bar, he put his arm around me and I froze. I didn’t know what to do and how to not make things even more uncomfortable, so I just ignored it for a few feet and then did a pivot out from under his arm and leaned back against the building to “people watch” and distract him. We watched people for a while and then we started to walk back to the hotel. He said a few times that he needed to “make sure I made it back to my hotel room safely” which I believe I said wasn’t necessary. I still felt at this point that I could maintain a good, professional relationship by ignoring his behavior and putting distance between us. I was also acutely aware of the power dynamic that he held as president of the board and also within the political circles in Dayton.

I was getting nervous about him following me to my room, so I said I was going to look around the mezzanine and he came with me and we walked around the hotel a bit.

We got in the hotel elevator, I pressed the 4 button, and on the 4th floor he got out with me, even though his room was on the 10th floor.

There was a crowd of people from the conference outside the elevator, and I stopped and engaged them in conversation in an effort to distract Smith. One of the people was Micah Ali, the president of Compton Unified School District. I got him and Smith talking together, then did a quick exit by saying I needed to use the bathroom and left as quickly as possible.

I was unnerved and also not ready to go to bed, so I texted Hunter Moreau from Paper (one of the sponsors of the conference), someone I had met at the reception earlier who mentioned he and his colleagues were going out. I took an Uber and met up with the four of them, had a drink, and talked for a while. I mentioned to them that my board president had just hit on me and I was extremely confused. We all took an Uber back to the hotel, they ordered some food to be delivered, but at that point I went back to my room and went to bed.

I called my husband the next morning and told him what happened.

That day, Sunday the 20th, Smith and I mostly avoided each other. I attended all of the important prep sessions to prepare for our meeting on Monday with Senator Brown’s staff, where we were going over legislative and policy issues. I was relieved that I didn’t see him in any of those meetings all day.

The next I saw Smith was at the conference evening reception. At one point, he and I were sitting next to each other at a small table and he leaned over and apologized for his behavior the previous night and said it was a good thing I left when I did. I told him I appreciated his apology and we’d talk about it later, since there were people all around us.

The reception ended, people went their various ways to dinner, I went back up to my hotel room to decompress and get some work done. At 8:28 p.m. Smith texted me and asked if he could be honest, I said sure, because I thought he wanted to address what had happened the night before. Instead he asked me “what are we doing tonight” and I responded “You are out with the cool kids, I am staying in”, he responded “no you are not” and I didn’t text back.

Around 10 I decided to go get some dinner at a taco stand. I walked to the taco stand, got my food, then brought it back to the hotel to eat in the mezzanine. On my way back in, I saw Smith and Hunter with a large group of people, I stopped and said hello, then went inside. I texted Hunter once I was in, inviting his group to join me in the mezzanine, hoping to join them after I was done eating. Hunter, Mackenzie, Alex, and Aghiles from the company all came up, we talked for a while, and then a few of us decided to go to a cigar bar. Five people in the group, Hunter, Alex, Smith, a woman named Rachel, and myself, all went to the cigar bar, where we met up with about 7-8 other people from the conference, including Micah Ali.

All of us were sitting against a wall, with several small tables scattered around. I had one drink that night, and Smith also ordered a drink. I was on the edge of the group, sitting at a table for 2, with Hunter to my left, but Smith sat across from me. I ignored him for a bit, talked with others in the group, and then Will leaned forward and quietly started telling me that I wanted to fuck him and that I’ve always wanted to fuck him. I was totally shocked and tried to rationally tell him “this is crossing a line, I am not okay with this” while drawing a line on the table with my finger over and over again. I listed out the reasons why this was a bad idea, tried to get him to think rationally about why it was a bad idea, and told him repeatedly that I was not going to cross this line. I told him I’m married, and asked about his fiancee, and he just shrugged. I don’t know if anyone else in the party heard our conversation; again, we were on the edge of the group. I still felt safe at that point, though, because we were in a large group.

The bar was closing, I went to use the bathroom at the back of the bar before we left. It was a single person bathroom, as I went in and turned around to lock the door, I saw Smith standing right outside the bathroom door and then I got scared. Up until this point he had crossed a line verbally and I never felt like I was in physical danger, but this made me scared. I used the bathroom, exited, and he tried to get me to come close to him. I tried to walk away, he called me back, and I went back only to tell him that this was NOT OKAY and it was crossing a line I wasn’t going to cross. He told me again and again that I wanted to fuck him. He said repeatedly “I just want to watch you”, which I understood to be a reference to sexual activity.

I left, and as I returned to the group I realized that most people had left while I was in the bathroom. Smith, Alex from Paper, and Micah Ali and I were left, we all took an Uber together back to the hotel. I tried to ignore Smith but could tell he was watching me really closely and I realized that he was going to try the same thing as the night before and get off on my floor. In the lobby of the hotel, while Smith’s back was turned, I mouthed to Alex “save me” and he looked at Smith and back at me and nodded. I could tell he got the message that I wanted him to help me evade Smith.

We got into the elevator together (me, Smith, Alex, and Micah), and my floor was the first stop. Will followed me out, and so did Alex trying to help me, and then Micah followed as well because we were all talking together. The conversation went on for a few minutes and then started to die down, I decided to try to get away by myself and said “I’m feeling sick from the cigar smoke, I’m going to get some fresh air” and tried to duck into an elevator to go down to the lobby. Smith followed me into the elevator and outside the hotel, I told him that I didn’t want him coming to my room and it was crossing a line and he was not going to come to my room. I started panicking and didn’t know what to do, it was clear he wasn’t going to leave me alone, I

thought I could lose him by walking away and just telling him no and I went to my room. He followed me back inside, into an elevator, to the 4th floor, and down the hall to my room.

I was panicking and just wanted to walk away from him, but he kept following me. We stopped in front of a few room doors and he stood right in front of my door (without him realizing it was my door). I repeatedly told him NO and “I’m not letting you in” and that he wasn’t going inside my room and he kept on saying again “I just want to watch you”. I kept on saying “I’m not letting you in my room, no, good night, I’m not letting you in”.

I knew he wasn’t listening to me. I knew he was willing to cross a line verbally and not listen to rational arguments, and I believe that if he got into my hotel room, he would continue to not listen to me telling him to stop. I believe that if he got in my room, he would have sexually assaulted me and I wouldn’t be able to escape him.

I didn’t want to open my door with him standing in front of it, I forget who suggested we sit down on the floor next to each other but I quickly realized it was a good idea to get him to relax and sit down. We sat down about 5 feet away from my door, he sat between me and the door, and I started asking him questions about the board and some of our colleagues, trying to take the focus away from me and get him relaxed. He talked a lot, my mind was racing, but I got my key card in my hand and got ready. All I was thinking about was hot to get into my room and escape him. When I was ready I quickly stood up, grabbed my purse, and ran to my door, unlocked it, ran inside, and turned around to slam it as quickly as possible. When I turned around, he was RIGHT in the doorway about to block the door from closing and I was barely able to close and bolt the door on him.

I immediately texted him “good night, I’m not letting you in”, still trying to be professional although I was terrified. I just wanted him to go away and leave me alone. It was 1:33 a.m.

He then stood there, outside my door, tapping quietly on the door, for what felt like a very very long time. He would tap a few times, stop, then tap tap tap again. I took a video of the door and you can hear the tapping. I went into my bathroom so I couldn’t hear the tapping, but came out and he was still tapping a few minutes later.

I texted my husband at 1:49 a.m. to see if he was still awake, but got no response.

Smith eventually stopped tapping on my door. I don’t know what time, but if I recall correctly I texted my husband when I knew he was gone for sure.

The morning on Monday the 21st I talked to my husband and I told him everything that happened. I went to the morning conference session, didn’t see Smith until later that morning in the session but he was across the room, and then I didn’t see him again. We had a previously scheduled meeting with Senator Brown’s staff at 4:00, so I decided to take an early cab there. Smith texted me at 2:03 and asked if I had left yet, I waited until I caught my cab at 3:15 ish before I told him I had already left. I got to the Hart building, met the staffer from Brown’s office, and we had to wait for a while because Smith was late getting to the meeting. I was professional during the meeting, when we left the building I said I was going to take some pictures in front of the Supreme Court building and Capitol building right across the street. He followed me, we took pictures, then I told him I needed to catch my own ride somewhere else and he left.

He called me twice that evening, I ignored his calls, he texted me at 11:28 p.m. asking if I went out, and I responded the next morning by telling him I had an emergency come up and I was going home a day early.

Jocelyn Rhynard, Board Vice President April 4, 2022

Will Smith has one thing going for him, in Ohio, as long as he shows up, and isn’t convicted of a felony, basically stays on the Board until his term is done. There’s no way to remove him from the board. Frankly, he should have been removed long ago, when I published this on Aug 9. 2021: “No qualifications needed to be on Dayton Public School Board ^[1]” featuring his mad musical skills:

Is this really the kind of person you want running your schools?

Here’s my Reply rap to Mr. Smith when he went to Washington. No Excuse Leaders