Two of those who are currently in the running to be the next governor of Georgia have a very unusual happenstance in common. Both candidates Ray McBerry, a white Republican, and Carl Camon, a black Democrat, once had their teaching certificates suspended for alleged “inappropriate contact” with female students.

While you chew on that for a minute, there is even a darker side to consider. After the revelations were disclosed this week (the Atlanta newspaper used the state’s Open Records Act to access the findings of the Georgia Professional Standards Commission) there is some belief the two might have been “set up” in the two unrelated incidents.

McBerry, suspended for one week in 2004 from the Henry County system, was also a youth minister at a church in Stockbridge where he counseled a girl who did not attend Patrick Henry High School where he taught. The girl’s stepfather said his counseling was “unauthorized” by her family and, in essence, went after McBerry.

According to a statement issued by McBerry’s campaign this week, “… the stepfather was unsuccessful because he was unable to persuade anyone in the investigation that his allegations and innuendo had any basis in fact.”

The statement also said, “Upon hearing the accusations and all of the testimony against Ray, the local magistrate did not even wait for Ray to take the stand in his own defense before ruling that no evidence had even been given that a crime was ever committed; and the magistrate refused to even allow charges to be brought in the case.”

McBerry, to this day, still has a valid teaching certificate in the state of Georgia and told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “It was unfortunate, at the time it happened (eight years ago). I did not understand how someone asked to help could become the target, himself, of suspicion.

“Today I see that the Providence of God used the incident to open new doors of opportunity for myself and my family, which has made my life much more enjoyable than it was when I was teaching and barely able to provide for my family,” he said.

In the case of Valdosta’s Camon, the facts versus the allegations are equally disturbing. Camon, a five term mayor of neighboring Ray City, angrily fought the charges that were filed against him in 2007 and, in October, actually quit his job teaching at Valdosta High School rather than “serve a single day, a single hour, for something I did not do.”

Camon, to this day, swears he was set up by some unruly students he disciplined and that “a group of girls said, ‘Mr. Camon, we’re going to get you.’ And, buddy, they put it on me.”

Responding to this week’s story, the mayor said, “I was accused of making inappropriate comments to students, but not one ounce of evidence in my case has been proven. Twenty-five or more fellow teachers, in which I have worked with at the same school, in the same classrooms, in the past, wrote statements supporting my innocence.”

Further, Camon said it was documented that “at no time was I ever alone with any of the students who made these false accusations; another teacher was always in the classroom with me.”

Well, the fact is that both men are hardly considered to be front-runners in this year’s gubernatorial race but what is really disturbing is that both now appear to have been victims themselves, based on the evidence that has been presented thus far in the two separate cases.

But, because they are running for governor, the two cases of alleged misconduct have been brought to light, and it makes you wonder if such a whipping is worth it – be it as a governor or a teacher.

As McBerry said, ““As a former educator, I understand and greatly respect, personally, the sacrifices that our teachers make, particularly in receiving such low pay and assuming such great risks all for the purpose of helping young people.”

royexum@aol.com