Freddie Gray knows being second-guessed and scrutinized comes with the job of Omaha Public School Board President. But when she came under fire over her handling of the Nancy Sebring scandal she got more than she bargained for, including allegations she'd violated the public trust and calls for her resignation or removal. Sebring is the former Des Moines Public Schools superintendent OPS hired in the spring only to resign after sexually charged emails she exchanged with her lover became public. The controversy about what Gray did and didn't do in response to the scandal culminated at an August 6 school board meeting where a special vote retained her by an 8 to 4 count. Until the blow up Gray slipped under the radar as a veteran but low profile public servant. She certainly never found herself on the hot seat quite like this. Often overshadowed by her husband, Omaha city councilman and former television journalist Ben Gray, she endured a public referendum on her character despite a seven month record as board president even her detractors don't fault. Gray was appointed to the board in February 2008 to replace Karen Shepard and ran unopposed that fall to retain the seat. She serves on local, state and national education initiative boards. Her Omaha school board peers thought enough of her to name her president at the start of 2012. Amidst the recent storm that led to Gray facing removal she refused to say she erred and balked at apologizing. "Whatever the pleasure of the board was going to be that night it was something I needed to live with," she says, "but I was not going to compromise my integrity and myself and say I was wrong when that's not true. "You can't buy me that way. I did the right thing, I know I did the right thing." Gray asserts she and OPS board counsel Elizabeth Eynon-Korkda acted properly based on what they knew at the time about the nature of Sebring's emails. Gray says she and Eynon-Korkda treated the matter as a personnel issue and therefore outside the board's purview because Sebring was already a district employee when the emails surfaced as an issue. "The personnel issue was the context of what was done and why it was done the way it was done," says Gray, adding she "didn't want to poison the well" and risk biasing the board should Sebring come before a termination hearing When the full extent of the sexually charged emails came to light, Sebring stepped aside. Gray can live with the "differing views" critics voice but she describes as "troubling" and "disturbing" the anonymous, expletive-filled postal letters and phone messages she says she's received at home. "There are people who took advantage of the situation. They didn't talk about what the issue was, it was just name calling, ugliness. I have grandchildren that were exposed to language totally inappropriate for them to hear. "I just find those people to be real cowards. You know, if you've got something to say to me then man up or woman up and say it to me." The negativity was counterbalanced by expressions of support, including her mate's presence at the July 30 and August 6 school board meetings. "I have a fabulous husband. He was very supportive. My family of course, not just my children but my sisters, my nieces and nephews. my extended family in Cleveland. The prayer chains people had going on. I had so many emails, phone messages, Facebook posts from people saying they had my back." She says her "trust and belief in a Supreme Being was never shaken" though "there was that question of why me and why now." Encouraging words too came, she says, from other school district leaders and from peers at the state and national levels. The morning that decided her school board presidency fate she spoke before an assembly of district principals who gave her a standing ovation upon her introduction. "That blew my mind. I had no clue what to expect when I walked in that room. It was quite moving and a great way to start the day."

read more: Freddie Gray Stands Fast on Her Handling of Sebring Scandal, OPS School Board President Survives Vote to Continue Her Mission