The director of Georgia’s family and children’s services is out of a job after he demeaned a Black sheriff’s deputy and berated a film crew in the parking garage of a state office building.
A day after the tirade, which was captured on silent video security footage and released to the public, Tom Rawlings submitted his resignation as director of the Division of Family and Children Services to Gov. Brian Kemp as requested. He cited personal and family reasons.
Rawlings became irate on July 15 when he was unable to access his parking space because of the TV film crew. An unidentified officer was working on a private security detail with the film crew and tried to defuse the confrontation. Later, he reported to the state that Rawlings had angrily referred to him as “son” and “boy.” As a Black person, he told authorities, he found Rawlings’ terms “highly offensive.”
When asked about the incident by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution days later, Rawlings said: “I’m very remorseful for what happened. I didn’t do it with any particular bias against anyone. I was just angry and ranting. It’s something I need to address as one of my personal flaws.”
Gov. Kemp replaced Rawlings, whom he had picked to run family and children’s services on a permanent basis in February 2019, with the appointment of Candice Broce as the division’s interim director. He didn’t have to look far. Broce was Kemp’s chief operating officer.
She has no experience in running child welfare programs, according to the newspaper. The division is also in charge of state programs such as elder abuse prevention, welfare assistance and food stamps.