“I’ll kill these n------": Georgia school official resigns after tape of racist comments comes out in lawsuit

A school superintendent in Buford, Georgia, has resigned after being accused of threatening black workers at a construction site and repeatedly using the “n-word” in audio recordings. The recordings, part of a federal lawsuit filed in June against the school system, feature a person court documents identified as Buford City schools superintendent Geye Hambey saying: “I’ll kill these n------ — shoot that n----- if they let me.”

“Fuck that n-----,” the person continues in the recordings. About 10 percent of the city’s nearly 15,000 residents identify as black, according to government data.

Hamby was placed on administrative leave after the recordings were reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution earlier this week. An attorney representing the school board, Walt Britt, said Wednesday that the board “has been unable to determine” the tape’s authenticity, or whether it was altered, according to the Journal-Constitution.

Britt declined to comment on Hamby’s resignation to VICE News, other than to confirm it. “My sincere apologies for any actions that may have created adversity for this community and for the Buford School District,” Hamby wrote in a letter to the school board, which Britt sent to VICE News.

Hamby couldn’t be reached for comment, but he told the Journal-Constitution in an email that this was “a personnel and legal matter pertaining to a disgruntled employee.” A teacher’s aide for the school system, who was fired in 2017 after two years of being written up, filed the lawsuit about Hamby’s alleged comments against the district. She said the write-ups started after she began circulating a petition to change the school’s emblem to include gold — representing the city’s black school district prior to its integration in 1969 — rather than its current green-and-white scheme. “The board anticipates further action on this matter at a specially called meeting in the next several days,” the school system said in a statement to the Journal-Constitution before Hamby resigned. “The district will continue to focus on the mission of empowering our students to reach their full potential.”

Cover image: Buford City Schools Superintendent Geye Hamby has been placed on leave and the school board will take up the matter in a called meeting. (Jennifer Brett/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)