Here in Georgia, you can’t run for governor as a Republican unless you sign a “loyalty oath.” No, really. And even if you’re a strong candidate with $2 million of your own money, you can’t be a Republican unless you sign it.
So Boyd is now running as an independent- that means, of course, as a challenger to the GOP candidate, with millions to spend, because he wouldn’t sign a slip of paper that reads “I do hereby swear or affirm my allegiance to the Republican Party.”
Rachel Gandee remembers it differently. “It got physical. It wasn’t at first. But yeah, it did get physical,” she said. In later interviews, although she initially denied that the relationship went that far, Rachel Gandee said she and McBerry had sex that fall, at his house.
Her parents — and their church — quickly became involved. That September, McBerry was summoned to a meeting with the pastor, a deacon and Ronnie Pittman.
“We told him to leave her alone. She was a child. Leave her alone. And those meetings went on an hour, or maybe an hour and a half. Each one,” the stepfather said. “After the first one, he didn’t get it, so we called him in again.”
“And then I caught him at a football game here in town,” Ronnie Pittman said. His stepdaughter, of course, was in the band. “I got on him pretty hard up there, ’cause it was just me and him.”
Linda Pittman came across two compact disks loaded with spyware that, her daughter later said, came from McBerry. Rachel used the programs to hide the messages she sent to the teacher on the family computer.
Finally, in December 2002, a couple from church caught the pair together on a dirt road — McBerry and Rachel had arrived at the rendezvous in separate cars. Linda Pittman went to the Henry County school board. McBerry abandoned his teaching job.
On Jan. 17, 2003, the mother brought McBerry before Henry County Magistrate Wesley J. Shannon, on charges of interference with custody, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
McBerry had an attorney. The Pittmans didn’t. Examining his files this week, Shannon said the parents didn’t present enough evidence for an arrest warrant. But they raised enough suspicions, the judge said, that he signed an order requiring McBerry to stay away from their daughter for six months.
“If I was to take an educated guess as to what I was doing at the time,” the judge said, “I was putting the ball in his court — saying, ‘Do you want to go to jail? Leave the girl alone.’ “
No one showed up at a July 17, 2003, follow-up hearing. Without the Pittmans to press any accusations, the judge had no choice but to dismiss the charges. The couple now say they regret not following up with the court action — because McBerry remained a shadow in their lives.
Rachel Gandee said her feelings for McBerry changed the day they were caught on that dirt road. Confronted, the high school teacher began pounding his car in a rage, she said. After the incident, her stepfather persuaded her that she was not safe.
At one point, McBerry returned to the church — from which he’d already been ousted — and was asked to leave, Ronnie Pittman said. His stepdaughter hid inside. On weekdays, at the wheel of her car, Rachel Gandee remembers seeing McBerry along her route to school. She began taking the bus.
Even as an adult, she still is reluctant to go into town alone, out of fear that she might see him. “I don’t want to break down in the middle of the Wal-Mart by myself,” Rachel Gandee said.
Of the Pittmans and their daughter, McBerry said their story has changed several times. He declined to cite specifics, but said he was contemplating court action.
Georgia has sent mixed messages when it comes to sexual ties between teachers and students. HB 571, a bill approved by the General Assembly on Tuesday, forbids relationships between students and teachers in the same schools.
But not, as Rachel Gandee says happened with McBerry, teachers and students from different schools. The measure also creates an exception for teachers and students who marry.
Yet consider this: On Monday, the Georgia Republican Party turned away Ray Boyd, a real estate executive with $2 million, as a candidate for governor because he refused to sign a loyalty oath of sorts.
But GOP officials say state law prevents the party of family values from blocking the candidacy of a former teacher accused of preying upon a young girl. Republicans will cash McBerry’s $4,180.18 qualifying check.
Principles, people.
