Beaufort Co. school board member goes to police after colleague follows her, takes photos, report says

Another Beaufort County Board of Education member has reported feeling threatened in her role as a public official — becoming the fourth school board member in a year and a half to file a police report over a board matter, and the third to make an accusation against a colleague.

After a “cordial” finance committee meeting Aug. 23 in Beaufort, JoAnn Orischak says board member Mary Cordray followed her, board member John Dowling and a private citizen from a local special interest group to an Okatie restaurant and took photos of the three, according to a report from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.

While taking the photos, Cordray — who repeatedly has been accused by fellow board members of behind-the-scenes maneuvering — scolded Orischak and Dowling for holding a “secret meeting,” the report said.

Orischak told deputies that she felt Cordray was “harassing her” and that she feared Cordray would “continue to follow her in the future to other social gatherings” and “take photos of her in an attempt to threaten her job,” the report said.

In a written statement given to the Sheriff’s Office, Orischak said: “There has been a history of Mrs. Cordray publicly retaliating against me for expressing concerns about the previous superintendent Dr. Moss ... I believe Mrs. Cordray’s actions toward me are motivated by her deep resentment toward me.”

Board difficulties persist

Tensions on the board have been a constant since former superintendent Jeff Moss’ ethics violations came to light in 2015, and the deep divisions have continued past Moss’ resignation in April.

Cordray, who is former board chairwoman, aligns herself with the majority, which supported Moss; Orischak and Dowling align themselves with the minority, which was critical of Moss.

The two sides have a history of involving law enforcement in their disputes:

• In April 2017, Bluffton board representative Christina Gwozdz filed a report after finding a dead rat placed in the middle of her front doormat. According to the report, Gwozdz told deputies she believed the rat was left as a threat by “someone with malicious intentions.” Gwozdz did not name who she felt might have left the rat on her doorstep, but she “expressed that there is often contention between board members as well as members of the public,” according to the report.

• Also in April 2017, Cordray filed a police report based on a confrontation she had with Dowling, then a private citizen, after a board meeting. According to video of the April 22 encounter, Dowling told Cordray, among other things, to “shut up and listen” and that she was a “sick coward.” Cordray then called him a “stupid piece of doo-doo.”

• In Nov. 2017, board member Joseph Dunkle called the Sheriff’s Office based on a perceived threat from board member Cynthia Gregory-Smalls during a heated closed-door session.

Cordray also has clashed with Orischak in the past.

In December 2016, the school board sent a cease-and-desist letter to Orischak ordering her to stop acting against the board and district. The letter was penned by Cordray.

No charges were filed in any of the cases.

Following the incident between Cordray and Dowling in April 2017, the presence of a deputy from the Sheriff’s Office became commonplace at Beaufort County school board meetings.

The latest incident

While walking into Cheap Seats Riverwalk on Aug. 23, Orischak noticed that Cordray had followed her, Dowling and Rich Bisi, who is affiliated with Citizens Advocating Responsible Education — a special interest group critical of the board and the former superintendent — from the meeting to the restaurant, according to deputies.

Cordray rolled down her front passenger window, held her cellphone up and reprimanded the three for meeting, the report said. She later told deputies that Orischak had invited her to join them, but she had declined and instead drove home.

When asked about the incident Tuesday, Orischak denied inviting Cordray to join them and declined further comment.

Cordray admitted to deputies that she took a photo of Orischak, Dowling and Bisi. She also recalled saying, “Oh, so this is where the secret meetings happen,” the report said.

However, Cordray maintained that she did not follow Orischak. The restaurant, she told deputies, is on her way home.

The Sheriff’s Office report says that Cordray initially only noticed Dowling’s car in the parking lot and that he was the individual she was taking a photo of due to him previously accusing her of having “secret meetings.”

She said she “found it comical” he was having “secret meetings” himself, the report said.

When asked Tuesday about the incident, Cordray explained the events differently.

Cordray told The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette that she heard Orischak and Bisi mention getting together after the Aug. 23 meeting. When leaving the Beaufort County School District headquarters after the meeting, she noticed Bisi trying to pull out of his parking spot and became curious about where they were going.

Cordray said Tuesday that she didn’t see anything wrong with Dowling, Orischak and Bisi meeting but felt it was “hypocritical.”

“It’s more that when they do it, it’s OK. But when someone else does it, it’s not OK,” Cordray said.

Dowling, who says he has been friends with Bisi since before his election to the board, said Tuesday that his outing with Bisi and Orischak is different from Cordray’s involvement with another special interest group.

“What good members of the board do is exchange ideas,” Dowling said Tuesday. “What we don’t do as good board members is lobby for votes or, even worse, tell people how they’re going to vote. And, I think that’s the distinction between the two groups (the majority and minority blocs).”

Earlier this year, some minority board members — as well as Bisi — took issue with Cordray after she shared a word-for-word motion about holding a $76 million school bond referendum with a co-founder of a local pro-referendum group, hours before a meeting.

When asked Tuesday about that correspondence, Cordray said she did not think it was inappropriate.

“If you were a constituent I’d been talking to about a specific issue, I might send you an email telling you what I plan to do,” Cordray said. “... It was just explaining how I got to where I was and what I was going to do.”

South Carolina law defines harassment as “a pattern of intentional, substantial and unreasonable intrusion into the private life of a targeted person that causes the person and would cause a reasonable person in his position to suffer mental distress.”

The deputy told Cordray that she did not break any law but, if she continued to intrude into Orischak’s private life, it would be considered harassment.

Cordray told the deputy she understood, the report said.

“I was absolutely surprised (to get a call from deputies),” Cordray said Tuesday, “seeing as there was nothing wrong with what I did.”

This story was originally published August 28, 2018 at 5:44 PM.