Selma City Schools Interim Superintendent Don Jefferson offered a formal apology for what he called a “Freudian slip” last week during a called school board meeting Tuesday.

“I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason,” Jefferson told the board during a work session. “The character of a true man is measured not when things are going great, but how he deals with adversity. Based on a Freudian slip that had on the last board meeting, I received a phone call from [Leesha Faulkner] at the newspaper. And I take full responsibility for anything I say or anything I do. And I will say the God I serve understands we are all human beings and people make mistakes. But the measure of that person is what you decide you are going to do to correct that mistake. So, I’m offering a formal apology to the board, but I’m also saying that when someone tries to psychoanalyze who you are and what you are about and try to judge and so forth and so on; you have to look at yourself first.”

Jefferson’s remark came right after the search firm, hired to conduct a search for the next superintendent of the school system, released the names of five people the firm recommends to the board.

Jefferson is one of those five.

During his statement of apology to the school board, Jefferson complained the newspaper did not report the nature of the negotiations over Grindal Harris’ contract.

Jefferson said board members Holland Powell and Brenda Randolph-Obomanu were on a committee to negotiate with Harris. After a called board meeting, Powell had negotiated Harris from $85,000 a year to $75,0000.

Then, on the evening of the meeting, Powell suggested Harris take $70,000 with raises in increments every year that would see her making $76,000 at the end of three years.

“And to come in on the day for something that should have taken five, 10 or 15 minutes should take two hours simply because of the fact that person who did the negotiations came in and voted against what he had negotiated,” Jefferson said during his apology. “And all I’m saying is, where’s the fairness?”

At the called meeting to which Jefferson referred, his frustration was evident, even before he used an ethnic slur offensive to Jews.

During last week’s meeting, he was given an opportunity to retract what he said, but did not take advantage of it.

“What I’m saying is people say things. But by virtue of the fact I took full responsibility for what I said; I didn’t duck and doge; didn’t go anywhere and hide; didn’t run from responsibility,” Jefferson said. “And that’s the mark of a true man. So, I said everything happens for a reason. I certainly hope that the board will understand. There’s no greater character in a person than integrity and dignity than in Don Jefferson. I will leave it at that.”