The RA Vernon Tapes

On February 5th, 2026 the pastor from The Word Church, RA Vernon, gave the first two speeches of his self proclaimed high school tour. He was introduced by Dr. Morgan and endorsed by Dr. Morgan as “my pastor” and he was celebrated by at least one city council member, Nikki Hudson. Several of the big money CMSD administrators were present that first tour day. If the pastor quoted scripture and invited students to come to his church, they would have understood that to mean that CMSD supported that message.

I put in a public record request for the audio and or video recordings from the speeches from Garret Morgan and East Tech high schools. I submitted the request on February 9th. I reminded CMSD of the request on March 6th. On May 6th I was told that the video could not be released because it would violate FERPA. My request was closed.

I reminded CMSD that the audio would not violate student privacy. I was going to reach out to the students who wrote to me with Vernon complaints to let them know that the video footage Vernon and The Word Church have posted on their Instagram are acknowledged FERPA violations but I got busy. I still need to do that. However, CMSD sent me the requested audio files today.

You can listen to them and judge for yourself if this was proper or improper. You can judge for yourself whether these twenty minute speeches were worthwhile at all.

The first speech of the day at Garret Morgan was almost exactly what teachers and students reported to me.

The second speech at East Tech is less rambling but has similar scripture quotations and invitations to his church.

The event that RA Vernon invited the students (though I would say implored at Garret Morgan) happened a day ago. The video he posted about it includes yellow school busses (yeah, I’m going to ask for receipts on how those got paid for) but no footage of students.

I still believe CMSD should legally force RA Vernon to remove videos with CMSD students from his and the church’s social media feeds. That CMSD has not done that but refused to release the videos as part of a public record sends the message that Dr. Morgan cares more about currying favor with his pastor than he does about protecting our students. The school board should demand it.