School Board Inconsistency

There's a new twist in the ongoing Athens-Clarke County schools saga, this one a teacher who has requested a hearing and charges the district with overlooking disciplinary problems among black students. Read it yourself here. She wants an independent investigation into the school system.

I'm not getting into the right and wrong of her accusations. I'm more interested for the moment in this. According to my local paper, the school district says it's "very unfortunate that a teacher would bring a personnel matter to local media.” 

Let that sentence above sink in for a moment. The district is complaining about her bring to the public the public's business, that is, how schools are conducted. But it specially thinks it's "unfortunate" a teacher would bring "a personnel matter" to the media. Hold that thought, and read below.

How did the district respond? By doing the very same thing. See this graph from the story:

In a Thursday statement on Dean’s request for a hearing, the school district says Dean has been the subject of “severe and ongoing personnel concerns, as well as multiple parent complaints, regarding her professionalism, interactions with students and instructional practices.” 

Hypocritical, much? The school district bitches about her making public a personnel matter, and then it makes public a personnel matter. Well played, school district. Sleazy, almost Trumpesque, but clever on a very sleazy level. Lemme be clear, I don't know the teacher, my kids did not go to her school, but I have a long-running journalistic experience with school boards and school systems, and this hypocritical attitude fits the misfiring PR aspect of ACC schools in the latest batch of problems, especially the Cedar Shoals rape case.