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>> Thank you for joining us for Last Call.

We're going to kick it off with you, Joe Holleman.

Kesha Scarlet, former superintendent for St.

Louis Public Schools, announced that she's filing suit against the schools for wrongful dismissal.

She says, among other things, that uh when she was let go, she wasn't allowed to appeal.

She didn't have access to her emails, which could have proved her case.

She also said that as a whistleblower, she had a lot of dirt on the district, which she wasn't allowed to share, and she suspects that that's the reason that uh she was fired.

H if if if she didn't have access to her emails and if she wasn't allowed to appeal, that does seem like something that she was wrong.

I all I know is I'm not surprised that she filed suit.

That's what you do these days when you get let go of a job.

And most of the time and and maybe Miss Scarlet wants to fight this thing right down to the ground.

I hope so.

I really hope so.

But basically, it seems to me, and not just >> Miss Scarlet, but other people, they're just looking for a settlement.

How much does the district want to pay me to go away?

And especially when you start going, I've got some dirt emails on here that if these get out, >> okay, how much of a check do you want?

It's like people who get sued for accidents and everything.

It like be used to be what was called a fetch bill in front of the legislature where you put in a bill and then people would slip you money to take that bill back out because they didn't want it.

And that's what a lot of lawsuits are these days.

And you get a settlement and everybody goes away.

I I thought that uh Dr.

Scarlet did a terrible job and she brought in all her buddy hires and 16 day trip to Japan and I thought she did an awful job.

But if it goes to trial, you have to remember that she was hired because she interviews well.

You know, she talked to the >> uh focus group, the the search group, and they liked her.

So, you're going to be dealing with a woman who is smart and can explain herself and she might be a very good witness.

I mean, if I were a lawyer for the city, I'd be concerned.

>> I wouldn't.

In fact, I I a jury because I don't live in the city of St.

Louis and I think that's where it was filed because I'd love to be on that jury.

Okay.

And I'd like to be the jury foreman.

And two, I ain't been to nobody's law school.

I want to take the case for SLPS.

I would French fry her and Dr.

Boris in her lawsuit.

I could win that case.

You do not settle with them.

I mean, call in the most expensive attorneys in the world.

Bring them back bring them all back.

Johnny Cochran, Effle Bailey, all of them because this is nonsense.

And I would I would laugh in their face in the courtroom.

The judge would probably say, "Mr.

Reed, you shouldn't be laughing at the defendants or the plaintiffs."

It's all I can do, your honor.

It it makes it it most of all after after the fury that you feel when you see that this woman had the >> the nerve >> the nerve I wanted to use another word the the gumption >> the gumption to file a lawsuit against the city.

They're part of this educational industrial complex where they it's almost like it's like they have, you know, they they go out, they know when a, you know, a school district's in crisis.

So, they pack up their road show and they come in and they they they give you all the stats that, you know, that you they dazzle you with stats and all of this kind of thing, but they can't deliver.

They do deliver really hefty credit card bills, but they can't deliver any kind of improvement.

And that is that's sickening because the kids are still >> well.

You know, it's interesting too that uh Dr.

Scarlet has sued Matt Davis who was, you know, on the board because he and Tony Cousins were her her big allies, you know, attacking people who attacked her and that she's turned on Davis and say that he >> Davis said at the end that she was so mistreated.

I mean, >> I don't know where but here's the thing.

They both got sent packing with a briefcase full of money.

It wasn't like they just said like, "Get out and buy.

We're not giving you a dime."

They got paid.

>> Got a lot of money.

>> You go get an attorney and you see if you can get another pack of money.

>> All right.

I >> I mean, I'm not saying it's right at all, but I don't think that's what I see.

>> Speaking of money, Alvin, I want to ask you, I think we're up to 15 or 16.

The number of St.

Louisans who are either under indictment are already convicted for stealing federal pandemic money.

The one of the latest ones is Monica Butler, Dr.

Monica Butler, who is going to put in a a gospel hall of fame on Kings Highway.

Well, apparently that's not going to happen.

But now look at the We just lost the Blues Hall of Fame.

>> We lost the Dog Museum some time ago.

We lost the photography hall of fame like three years ago, the bowling hall of fame, >> the steel guitar hall of fame.

I guess we're just not very good when it comes to hall of fame.

>> Well, this is is a totally different animal.

And in the words of the temptations, dealing in dirt and stealing in the name of the Lord.

This is worse than all of them.

Now, you might have had a not for-p profofit.

Somebody just got sentenced for Elmo's Love Lounge where Bill and I used to hang out back in the day.

You know, but this is different.

And trust me, there are a lot of people out there that do a lot of bad things.

They don't involve a church.

They don't involve a gospel or anything like that.

This is hideous.

I hope she does time.

And there are a lot of people out there that already said like, I don't know about this Gospel Hall of Fame.

Seems like it's a lot of bluster and absolutely nothing's getting done.

Well, yeah, there was some thieving going on too, allegedly.

>> She got a lot of love, Elvis.

>> I mean, >> from the state.

Yeah, >> press liked her.

>> The press did like her.

But, uh, not the St.

Louis American.

>> I we I was always I was just kind of cautious of that whole thing.

I I I really was.

I and I had no idea there was true dishonesty going on, but I just didn't it just didn't just it didn't seem like it was going anywhere.

>> Bill, let me ask you about a report that came out from Ness Sandival, the demographer from St.

Louis University, and he points out that there's a declining birth rate in this country.

But the two regions that are tied for worst are Virginia Beach, Virginia, and St.

Louis, Missouri.

We have the greatest percentage decline in births in the first four years of this decade.

It seems to me that a lot of people uh of reproductive age are moving out of town and going to places uh like Denver or Nashville and maybe that's why we're losing >> or my son Austin, he's got three kids now.

Yeah.

you, you know, I I don't know the demographic underpinnings of any of this, but it is interesting that we're talking about these data centers because we need more money for schools when in fact the schools are shuttering.

They're closing and we're trying to figure out what schools to close and we're having fewer and fewer children.

I and I think it's it's certainly something that uh as professor Sandaval points out something to keep an eye on.

I do think we have to mitigate it at least a bit to say that in the nation the birth rate is declining.

So I don't I mean yes it's it's worse in St.

Louis and Virginia Beach.

But there's no place where they're saying oh Austin they're having kids like crazy down there.

The birth rate is down.

And I think there's a variety of reasons for that, >> such as >> well uh better uh contraceptives and more access to them.

People simply deciding because whether it's political unrest or what have you, having two careers that they're not having children or maybe they're having one child and one child only.

And it's happening all across the United States.

>> Families like you say, you know, a generation ago, people would have seven, eight kids.

I remember when it was my sister and I, we we were like an un you only two kids, >> you know, and now two kids, maybe three is like, whoa, you got a big family.

So, I think there's a lot of reasons that are bringing it down all across the country.

St.

Louis does seem to be experiencing it a little more strongly than other places.

>> And I'm not I'm not Please believe me when I say this, I'm not framing this in a moral or religious framework.

I'm saying purely mathematically since we legalized abortion if you have had 60 if you've had 60 million 70 million abortions and their descendants just basic math that is not a that is not a medical question that is not a philosophical religious spiritual any kind of question just basic math I think we would be remiss if we did not at least put that into the pot of items that we would Like, all right, I'm not arguing with you at all.

I will say that in in Kirkwood and around us, the families that aren't having the kids like they used to are Catholic families.

>> Oh, there's no doubt.

That's what he was just That's what he was just saying.

>> That's where kid population has plummeted around where I live.

>> Well, and you're talking about children and children, young people of reproductive age.

I thought Virginia was for lovers.

I thought Virginia >> pretty much.

Well, you could have kids when you're 38 and 40.

I did it.

>> Well, I didn't have them.

We'll pick up uh from there next week.

>> Okay.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Uh and don't forget to uh subscribe to the Donnybrook YouTube channel.

>> That was That was good, Wendy.