by Pa Rock
Former School Principal
There was a controversy at our local high school this past week, one with distinct political overtones that went on to make the national news. A group of students were handing out small rainbow flags to show support for the school's LGBTQ community, and shortly thereafter another group of students responded by unfurling a Confederate flag in the school cafeteria to show their support of the area's "southern heritage."
School district officials, realizing the "freedom of speech" issues which were at play - and no doubt wanting to avoid pick-up loads of angry parents driving circles around the school - initially released an innocuous statement talking about the student "banners" and freedom of speech, but later, as the matter began to ferment on social media and made its way into a few national news outlets, they came up with a more comprehensive statement which still said very little - but had much flowerier phrasing. Basically the district was concerned with bullying but would do nothing to interfere with student rights of expression - at least at this point.
No disciplinary action was announced, nor did the school district propose any change in school policies - again - at this point.
The school superintendent and high school principal were both conveniently unavailable for comment, and the job of calming the press - and the public - fell to the Director of Communications and Community Relations.
Forty years ago I was a high school principal at a smaller high school in the same county. At that time I didn't have the luxury of hiding behind some "Director of Communications" or other flack whose job it was to jump up and protect me from the press. Every misbehaving student, pissed-off teacher, angry bus driver, or cook, or janitor was my problem, and mine alone. In addition to being the first to arrive and last to leave on most days, most school nights found me on school buses riding to ballgames, several of which were seventy miles away. It was a high stress job that led many of my contemporaries to alcoholism and early deaths.
Back in the day the big disciplinary controversies raged around students chewing gum, chewing tobacco, smoking cigarettes, and showing up at school or school events drunk. One night while driving a drunk student home from a school dance - just to get him off of the premises - the young man threw up in my fairly new car - gallons and gallons. Another student left a ball game early one night and began slashing bus tires with his handy hunting knife. He also managed to slash one tire on my car. I'm not sure why he stopped at one, but I took it as some awkward sign of respect. Another time an extremely angry mother pushed her way into my office and shoved a seven-page handwritten letter into my hand. She was upset because I had suspended her son for showing up drunk at a school dance, and her primary complaint seemed to be that since we all went to the same church I should have let him off with a reprimand.
It was a complicated job, with small town biases and values permeating every action. After just a few years at the thankless job, I left to sell real estate and then do social work. It wasn't too long after I left school administration that the job got infinitely more complex.
Back when I was a principal we had a telephone in each of the school's two offices, and one pay phone in the hallway for students. An ill student or one with a problem could usually use a phone in the office to contact parents. But, and this is a really big but, there was not internet - and there were no personal cell phones. Now there are - and now the job of running a school is much more complex and difficult.
When the flag situation hit the fan at our local high school earlier this week, everyone pulled their cellphones and began filming. The incident was on Facebook before school officials likely even had an inkling about what was going on. There was no controlling the story from within - it was already out there. School officials chose to obfuscate and bury it as much as possible in verbiage - because they, like me forty years ago, have families to feed. Decisive action would have likely generated a decisive reaction.
And I read all of the local accounts as well as a couple of national summaries, and decided that these young administrators of today know what they are doing. If the same situation had occurred twenty miles up the road and forty years ago, I would have been fired!
Former School Principal
There was a controversy at our local high school this past week, one with distinct political overtones that went on to make the national news. A group of students were handing out small rainbow flags to show support for the school's LGBTQ community, and shortly thereafter another group of students responded by unfurling a Confederate flag in the school cafeteria to show their support of the area's "southern heritage."
School district officials, realizing the "freedom of speech" issues which were at play - and no doubt wanting to avoid pick-up loads of angry parents driving circles around the school - initially released an innocuous statement talking about the student "banners" and freedom of speech, but later, as the matter began to ferment on social media and made its way into a few national news outlets, they came up with a more comprehensive statement which still said very little - but had much flowerier phrasing. Basically the district was concerned with bullying but would do nothing to interfere with student rights of expression - at least at this point.
No disciplinary action was announced, nor did the school district propose any change in school policies - again - at this point.
The school superintendent and high school principal were both conveniently unavailable for comment, and the job of calming the press - and the public - fell to the Director of Communications and Community Relations.
Forty years ago I was a high school principal at a smaller high school in the same county. At that time I didn't have the luxury of hiding behind some "Director of Communications" or other flack whose job it was to jump up and protect me from the press. Every misbehaving student, pissed-off teacher, angry bus driver, or cook, or janitor was my problem, and mine alone. In addition to being the first to arrive and last to leave on most days, most school nights found me on school buses riding to ballgames, several of which were seventy miles away. It was a high stress job that led many of my contemporaries to alcoholism and early deaths.
Back in the day the big disciplinary controversies raged around students chewing gum, chewing tobacco, smoking cigarettes, and showing up at school or school events drunk. One night while driving a drunk student home from a school dance - just to get him off of the premises - the young man threw up in my fairly new car - gallons and gallons. Another student left a ball game early one night and began slashing bus tires with his handy hunting knife. He also managed to slash one tire on my car. I'm not sure why he stopped at one, but I took it as some awkward sign of respect. Another time an extremely angry mother pushed her way into my office and shoved a seven-page handwritten letter into my hand. She was upset because I had suspended her son for showing up drunk at a school dance, and her primary complaint seemed to be that since we all went to the same church I should have let him off with a reprimand.
It was a complicated job, with small town biases and values permeating every action. After just a few years at the thankless job, I left to sell real estate and then do social work. It wasn't too long after I left school administration that the job got infinitely more complex.
Back when I was a principal we had a telephone in each of the school's two offices, and one pay phone in the hallway for students. An ill student or one with a problem could usually use a phone in the office to contact parents. But, and this is a really big but, there was not internet - and there were no personal cell phones. Now there are - and now the job of running a school is much more complex and difficult.
When the flag situation hit the fan at our local high school earlier this week, everyone pulled their cellphones and began filming. The incident was on Facebook before school officials likely even had an inkling about what was going on. There was no controlling the story from within - it was already out there. School officials chose to obfuscate and bury it as much as possible in verbiage - because they, like me forty years ago, have families to feed. Decisive action would have likely generated a decisive reaction.
And I read all of the local accounts as well as a couple of national summaries, and decided that these young administrators of today know what they are doing. If the same situation had occurred twenty miles up the road and forty years ago, I would have been fired!
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