When Atlanta civil rights lawyer Edward Buckley filed a race discrimination lawsuit against Buford School Superintendent Geye Hamby last year, he embedded the complaint with recordings allegedly capturing Hamby using racial epithets.

Hamby—Buford's school superintendent since 2006—was suspended one day after those recordings became public. He resigned within days but made no mention of the epithet-laced recordings, which included an obscene threat to shoot a black worker.

Instead, in an Aug. 24 letter, Hamby offered "my sincere apologies for any actions that may have created adversity for this community and the Buford school district."