In Your Opinion: FHS Students Should Be Patient With Administration

By Bill Connell, Somerset.

I have taken fancy to a new song by Ian Hunter, “Fingers Crossed.” It is about a real life pirate, asking himself at the time of his hanging, am I really a victim of circumstance? This is what was in the back of my mind as listened at the school board meeting…and listened and listened and listened.

As an aside, I heard a lot about rights and privilege, not a whole lot about education.

The only real issues at the High School are the management of hallway passing and apparently the new principal’s social awkwardness. The dress code and cell phone issues are convenience issues. One parent got up and said they could not find anything tasteful at Hollister. Would you dress your kid in Camo and fluorescent orange because you went shopping at Cabellas? I have two girls, I get it, we don’t want them dressing like Hillary Clinton but a handful of times we had to say, no, you can’t wear that to school. The school board cannot be blamed because parents don’t give their kids the once over before leaving the house.

Put another way: Donald Trump said he would release his tax returns when Clinton releases her deleted emails. What he should have said is no, I don’t want to and own the consequences. He didn’t do that, he transferred blame. I saw a lot of this logic at the school board meeting. Based on a young man’s comment about the NFL, I could not help but wonder if some parents were worried more about scholarships then the perceived injustice of the charter school policy or how the school board is supposed to run.

I did not agree with some of what the kids said but they did a great job making their case. My issue is they all spoke from a first person perspective. The building holds 2,000 people. The only place the sum of their behavior is noticed is in the front office. No one child could possibly know what administration has to deal with. Understanding this, I would have never let my kid sign that petition on the 3rd day of school, maybe on the 20th, but not before attempting to help the situation or trying to communicate to administration properly. That cannot be done on the 3rd day of school. A snarky remark in the hallway or a glib facebook post is not communicating.

In the end the kids were right but they also gave administration a pass/fail grade. I am sure kids would not like that policy implemented on them. The would be begging for loopholes. Give administration time to fix this and speak to administration, not at them. In the meantime, manage your cell phone use, look closer at what you wear and be courteous in the hallway.

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