Jennifer Granholm should remove Reverend David Murray from office. Immediately.

by: Jeff Wattrick

Fri Jun 18, 2010 at 20:14:48 PM EDT

As you may have heard Detroit's school board president Otis Mathis resigned for masturbating in front of the district's superintendent. I think that matter speaks for itself. Everyone with a brain recognizes that Mathis is obviously disturbed or degenerate or both, and needs serious help of the mental health variety.

This brings me to Mathis' colleague, Reverend David Murray, who apparently lacks anything resembling gray matter. Some quick background, He changed his name from David Murray to Reverend David Murray some years ago. He also lost custody of his adopted children after a judge found him to have neglected and abused them. Murray's comments to WDET's Craig Fahle during an interview last summer are at the bottom of this diary.

Today Murray not only defended Otis Mathis, but Murray defended Mathis' behavior. And that makes him unfit to serve on a school board. Or serve in any other capacity around children. Let's go to the tape:

Here's what Murray said to the Free Press:

"He's a young man; maybe he didn't know it was offensive to her," Murray said of the 55-year-old Mathis. It's not something I would do. He's a young man. That's just the way it is."

And here's what Murray said to the News:

"It happens to a lot of young men. They engage in behavior they feel is harmless and it's offensive to certain people," Murray said. "It could be deemed offensive, but some women are more sensitive to those types of things than others."

"I feel bad for him because he probably felt that it was something she would probably like or she got humor out of it."

Really, Reverend David Murray? You think it's acceptable to believe women get "humor out of" a man masturbating in front of her during a professional meeting? You think young men do this sort of thing all the time, and it's (what?) an innocent rite of passage?

What if a DPS student were to masturbate in front of a teacher or a classmate? Would Murray consider that "harmless?" Would he tell the victim that "just the way it is" and be less "sensitive."

Given Murray's track record I doubt he could pass a civil service background exam to be a school janitor. He shouldn't be in a position to make educational decisions about minor children. Yes, he was elected. So were Richard Nixon and Kwame Kilpatrick.

I realize the school board is functionally powerless at the moment. However, the courts ruled the board does retain academic control over the district while the emergency financial manager is in place. Technically, Murray still has a say in how Detroit schools are run.

Governor Granholm needs to act swiftly, and use her constitutional powers to refuse Reverend David Murray. He is unfit to serve. We simply cannot entrust our children to people who defend such grotesque predatory sexual behavior.

P.S. Here's what Murray said about the child abuse case last August to my old WDET colleague Craig Fahle. I had these quotes in stored in an old email. If I can find a transcript or podcast of interview, I'll post a link.

The whole situation with regard to that matter was all a farce. It was something that was ugh it was something that was politically driven. And ugh my children, though I let my children go where they wanted to go but I we still have a loving relationship. But the situation had to do with those who created the I guess the complaint, the false complaint, and then in conjunction with those who try to besmirch my name politically. But it didn't do any good because everybody in Detroit know that I am an advocate for children.

If ahh children, particularly children you did not birth, if they become inadequate in terms of their own behavior and ability to have structure or accept structure then the best thing to do is to let them go.

If it was my birth children I may have put up a bigger fight.