Weeks after being impeached as administrative vice president of the Student Government Association, Chris Shadrock is seeking the impeachment of both President John Kleinhans and Executive Vice President Rachel Keller.
“In my opinion, both John and Rachel have violated the constitution, and per the precedent set by the SGA, I feel an appropriate action needs to be taken,” Shadrock said.
Shadrock began circulating a petition asking for impeachment on Nov. 28. The petition was taken away and held by SGA adviser Shannon Healy until Dec. 1. Healy said she asked for the petition because she wanted to look at it and make sure it had accurate information before returning it.
“This is after he was impeached; now he’s bringing all this into light. It’s pretty troubling when somebody comes at the situation for revenge,” Kleinhans said.
The petition discloses text messages between Keller and Shadrock, in which Keller makes derogatory comments about another Lyndon student. It also claims that Kleinhans misused student funds while attending a leadership conference in Washington, D.C. with the other members of the executive board by failing to attend numerous events. The petition also states that Kleinhans prevented financial controller Miranda Bushey from informing clubs that were in debt about their situations.
Shadrock, who was impeached for sexual discrimination after calling Chenette a ‘fag boy’ on Facebook, is accusing Keller of the same thing.
“I am not giving him the encouragement to hate sga anymore than he does. But I still hate
him,”Keller allegedly wrote in a text message, referring to Chenette. The text was sent on Sept. 17, one week before Shadrock made his comment on Facebook.
“The text was sent in September when Justin and I didn’t have the most positive personal or professional relationship that we have developed now, and he and I have talked about it and moved past and it and everyone else should too,” Keller said.
Healy does not believe the comments made by Keller are comparable to the comments that led to Shadrock’s impeachment.
“I think private text messages are a very different form than a public Facebook wall where your 500-plus friends can see it,” she said. “I think a text message between two people who at the time were both executive board members is very different than a public posts on a public website.”
“I think the biggest thing that we need to focus on here is the difference between private and public,” Keller said, adding, “a lot of those things were taken out of context. And it was an isolated incident. I’ve spoken with Justin and explained the situation and he is aware of what happened, and even he sees that this is a completely different situation than Mr. Shadrock’s situation.”
Healy wrote Shadrock a letter that states there is a lack of evidence to support many of the claims, and that Keller’s comments did not violate the constitution because they were in a private setting, and that Shadrock joined in on the conversation. She also pointed out that many months have passed since the conference and the comments, and that Shadrock waited too long to bring these issues to light.
“I questioned why these problems are all suddenly coming up now if it’s been such an ongoing issue,” Healy said.
“Everything he says in this petition is petty, small, and I don’t believe impeachable,” Kleinhans said. “This is not a valid impeachment due to the fact that this is a personal attack on myself and Rachel Keller.”
Kleinhans pointed to a set of photos on Shadrock’s Facebook page, in which he and Keller were both tagged with derogatory titles.
“I was ready to resign because of how malicious that Facebook picture was,” he said.
In response to the allegations that he took advantage of the trip to the leadership conference, Kleinhans said that a death in his family the reason for visiting with a cousin who happened to be in Washington, D.C. at the time.
“I think it’s awful that Chris Shadrock is trying to impeach me over that,” Kleinhans said, “It’s very petty to go after that.”
“I really think the SGA needs to move forward. We need to start remembering what we’re here for. It’s not for the petty drama; it’s for the students,” Keller said.
Kleinhans explained that the delay in informing clubs about debt issues was the result of issues with the official numbers, and that the matters were dealt with when the numbers became known.
“Miranda [Bushey] oversees the entire financial situation of the SGA,” he said, “That’s her responsibility to do that, so why am I being brought upon that impeachment?” Kleinhans and Healy added that he does not have the power to prevent Bushey from doing her job.
“I’m just really sad and hurt that the good that’s happening in the SGA is being completely overshadowed by revenge,” Keller said.