Roy Exum
One of the brightest reactions to the tragic bullying on the Ooltewah basketball team last December is that good people have brought noted expert Paul Coughlin in for what is being called “A Courageous Community Conference.” Coughlin is here for three days to lay the foundation for the next 50 years if we’ll only listen and implement his research and resulting ideas to counter bullying. And what is the essential ingredient to back down a bully? Courage.
But the first red flag went up when Coughlin said resignations and firings are not the answer to bullying. He claims instead we must change our atmosphere, our mind set, and, while I understand what he is trying to say, there are people in our Department of Education who have been found to have known this depravity has been going on and haven’t done anything about it. Hello!
Those people are most definitely “short timers” and have no business being associated with children in any way, fashion, or form. I’m all for doing anything Paul Coughlin suggests but the only way to rid a body of cancer infestation is to remove it. Answer me: would you let Ooltewah basketball coach Andre Montgomery take your child on a weekend basketball trip if the sordid allegations about what happened are confirmed? Thank you. The defense rests.
For what it’s worth, I am whispered the joint investigation by District Attorney General Neal Pinkston and Sheriff Jim Hammond will curl your hair. This isn’t a blanket condemnation of Ooltewah or its high school but every one of the 1,600 who attend the school should never have to worry there are any evil corners. These kids deserve that assurance and, without firings, it is my belief this cannot take place.
Trust me, I am very safe in saying that in Hamilton County education we are not going to store our garbage any longer. I don’t care what you call it – witch hunt, conspiracy, vendetta – there are people who are going to be held accountable after the school board hires an interim superintendent. Blood on the floor doesn’t bother me unless it is from a 15-year-old or any other child. There will be a reckoning, I assure you.
It is real important that everyone must know, with all respect to Coughlin’s wisdom, that some of the firings necessary in the Department of Education have nothing at all to do with bullying. It is about incompetence, “failure to deliver,” and the fact that out of 161 school districts in the whole state of Tennessee, we are in the bottom 10 districts in Algebra I. Who is responsible for that and why haven’t they been called by the front desk and told to be out of their room by noon?
Let’s not get confused or take our eye off the big picture. Yes, the horrific rape by his own teammates will be indelibly stamped in our minds for a lifetime but, aided by the dismal Chattanooga 2.0 report, we have found our county’s Department of Education tremendously deficient. The reason Rick Smith resigned is because he could not – and did not -- perform as a superintendent. It is that stark.
I don’t think anybody is a failure. I believe in redemption, overcoming adversity and a positive future but let’s be honest: When Jesse Register was the superintendent we had 30 percent of our third graders who couldn’t read on the prescribed level – now it has reached 60 percent. Rick Smith wasn’t responsible for third grade reading but he allowed it to happen. Well, whoever allowed our grammar school failure rate to double also needs to be held accountable. And they were making a salary of what? Please.
Now we find other ‘fat cats” at the central office, making idiotic salaries when compared to our best classroom teachers, are the reason 65 percent of our graduates who enroll at Chattanooga State must take remedial classes. This has nothing to do with bullying. Yet there is no one in our county that doesn’t know that our children haven’t been grossly “dumbed down” by a county school system so badly out of whack we are the worst metropolitan system in the state – and that includes Memphis! My lord!
There is ample proof that many principals who are sent to the “central office” were failures before the good ole boy system kicked in. The very schools they led were “on notice” by the state. If you care to do the research, and I am told by one who has, that almost all of Rick Smith’s inner circle was found wanting before each was “booted upstairs.” If these goofs couldn’t excel as principals, what makes you believe we can put them in a herd and come up with the Kentucky Derby winner? This was idiotic and, already, you know the result.
Let’s look at football, college or pro. When a head coach is fired – for what? – not winning, his entire staff is fired too. This is life. This is now nature works. There are some people in the central office – I am told Robert Sharpe is one, for example -- who are most definitely salvageable and there may be others whose voices and ideals have been so muffled out of fear they simply couldn’t dare cross the grain. Sure, they need a chance.
But there are others who will never regain the confidence of the school room teachers, their own colleagues or the public at large, if … certain documentable stories are told. I’ve never seen anything like it. My emails from fearful teachers – who sign their names with their phone numbers – all include two phrases – “don’t reveal my identity because I will be fired,” and, far better, “please keep digging.”
Get this: there is one person who makes in excess of $100,000 who, just in the month of January, caused me to I receive at least six different emails that included the words “sadist” or “sadistic.” Don’t you think somebody needs to get her some professional help? It’s bizarre … the six emails were obviously from different schools in different areas of the county but talk about a reputation. Let’s take a deep look and give her a chance to refute the allegations but, if guilty, let devil sign the check because this demented soul is allegedly working for him already.
So, yessir, I am all against bullying but we have bigger problems with a different cancer. Now is the time to clean up the whole mess. I appreciate Paul saying resignations or terminations aren’t the answer to bullying, but until you take the necessary steps to rid yourself of what may soon be brought to light, you have no choice but to cut away all disease and evil.
There are now people in this community with the resolve to do exactly that. Do not get in the way.
royexum@aol.com