posted September 4, 2008
Can somebody please help us in our attempt to find out exactly why Hixson High School was "locked down" on Thursday, Sept. 4th? The superintendent's office has not explained it. The school administration has not explained it. Our call to Everett Fairchild on Thursday evening was the first he'd heard about it. That's right, Thursday evening. Long after the lockdown. Long after school had been dismissed.
We've heard every theory, from false alarms, to unauthorized people on campus, to a gun being found in the possession of a student. Nobody is being forthcoming as to the facts surrounding the lockdown. Is this the transparency we expect from our public servants? Do we actually pay these people to keep us in the dark when it comes to the safety of our children?
Is it so hard to put out a release to the media? Is there not a PR representative for the school district? Does a parent truly have to dig this hard to get to the facts? My faith in the ability of the school's administration has once again come full circle.
The last time I questioned Hixson High School's ability to serve our children they requested that I meet with them and give them a chance to explain. I did just that. I met with the principal and administration. I toured the school. I asked questions and the answers I received were sufficient to turn my opinion around. I made my change in opinion just as public as my initial doubts. However, this latest incident has tipped the scales back to doubt and uncertainty.
This isn't about education. This isn't about the faculty's ability to teach. This is about a forthright approach to dealing with what may or may not be a bad situation. How can we expect our children to be honest and make the right choices in their lives if the example that is being set for them at school is so completely at odds with these basic character traits?
We cannot begin to trust what they tell us if they don't even bother to speak up.
Gerald L. Rettie
glrettie@yahoo.com
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Ah, but the same director of schools who hides information from the taxpaying citizens of Hamilton County still rates an extension of his cushy HCDE contract and the school board member whose district Hixson High is in didn't know anything about a problem when it was all over the news all day long. What's wrong with this picture?
But high school students are going to pull up their trousers, and the taxpaying citizens of Hamilton County couldn't see a problem with the school board requiring change when they had the opportunity. Not only that, few of them even thought to get out and vote when it recently came time to tend to their responsibility. Sixteen percent registered voter turnout is abhorrent.
Isn't the principal, perhaps the assistant principal, of Hixson High also a member of the SETPAC group, an organization that purportedly was set up to encourage better government? Seems I remember seeing something about that recently.
It also seems I remember she's related in some manner to one of our local state legislators, a state legislator who took the lead a while back in advocating changes to the BEP formula that would bring more money to Hamilton County for our schools. If that's the case, why do we have so many problems at Hixson High the past few months? One might imagine that with all that "political pull" there wouldn't be so many problems at Hixson High. Hixson High used to be one of the primo schools in the county. All we seem to hear these days are the problems, and the attempted cover-ups of what actually happened, so someone can "control the message" that reaches the public.
But we have a VW plant coming to town, a plant subsidized by the citizens and taxpayers so they'll focus huge resources in the Hamilton County area because of the "investment" our elected officials and government functionaries have been willing to make with our tax dollars. This plant's supposed to bring even more tax dollars into the county, but on the backs of small business and Joe and Jane Schmuckatelli, citizens and taxpayers, who have to tote the note for all of this "investment." When do we get a return on our "investment?"
And this morning, Friday, it's being reported in the Nashville papers that VW has not eliminated the Huntsville area as a site for expansion even though Tennessee has "invested" over $500 million to bring them here. One must wonder how this will be used to demand an even greater "investment" of our local tax dollars, and for what. But it's for the children, and the good of those of us who are picking up the tab.
Isn't it time we begin telling our own Secret Mayor Man, Claude Ramsey, "Dude, you better, like, get your hand off of my wallet!"? But I'm sure good old Richard will have another joke to tell, Bo will smile and try to tell us how good those public/private partnerships are for us, and the electorate will keep voting for them no matter what office they wish to pursue. In some circles we would call this "same stuff, different day" or just the acronym SSDD.
I need a cigar.
Royce E. Burrage, Jr.
Royce@OfficiallyChapped.org
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