I am writing to encourage the WW-P Board of Education to broadcast the proceedings of their public business meetings, not because I believe WW-P has failed to provide transparent communication, but because I feel the entire community should have the opportunity to view first-hand the alarming behavior on the part of certain parents and community members.
The hue and cry for the administration to be more transparent is puzzling to me, given that anyone can find online the Board agendas and minutes, current and proposed policies, as well as testing data, compensation tables, budget information, and curriculum guidelines. The information is there for the taking, meetings are open to the public, and administrators have routinely spoken to parents at PTA meetings over the 14 years I’ve had children in the district. School officials acknowledge that communication can always be improved and are working towards that end, but there is simply not a conspiracy of silence.
The general public is, however, in the dark about one thing: the disturbing nature of the public comment period at BOE meetings. The administration and board typically maintain a dignified silence, even as certain members of the public excoriate them, disparage their academic credentials, imply they are mentally ill, and even suggest they are driving students toward suicide.
The number and range of insults seem boundless, and the disrespect isn’t directed exclusively at school officials. Consider just a sampling of the many stranger-than-fiction moments generated by WW-P critics over the last academic year, moments that have been selectively omitted by local newspapers:
1. Dozens of parents heckled Kurt Baker, founder of Attitudes in Reverse (AIR), a nonprofit organization dedicated to mental health awareness and suicide prevention. Kurt movingly shared what he has learned from the experience of losing his son Kenny, who took his own life in 2009 three weeks before graduating from high school. As Kurt warned parents about the prevalence of suicidal ideation among teens, the crowd became enraged, one woman even calling out, “Stupid!” As Kurt walked away from the podium, protesters shook their placards at him.
2. A parent publicly lamented that she bought a home zoned for a particular district school before she found out that there was a cluster of special needs students assigned to that particular location. The parent protested that this arrangement isn’t fair to the other children enrolled at the school.
3. A parent stood up during the first period for public comment to demand that the district slash the budget, suggesting that spending should be reduced from year to year. During the second period for public comment that night, the same parent demanded that the district hire more high school counselors. (It is commonplace for members of the public to alternate between petitioning the district to reduce the budget on the one hand, and increase services on the other.)
4. A tall and imposing man got out of his seat during a board meeting and walked right up to a group of high school students who had just concluded an impressive presentation about their club’s scientific collaboration with Rutgers University. In a booming voice, the man demanded to know why there wasn’t a comparable program at the other WW-P high school, and he then delivered an angry lecture on enforcing parity between schools (not understanding that this was a student-initiated club). The man didn’t seem to notice the horrified looks on the faces of the students, who had every reason to believe his anger was directed at them.
Additionally, in public comments, in letters to the editor, and on social media, a number of disgruntled community members have engaged in hateful speech (directed at public officials) that is flirting with slander and libel. They have shown utter disregard for civility and have demonstrated a range of immature and inappropriate behavior that no responsible parent would tolerate from a child. My own children would have lost cell phone and computer privileges indefinitely, had they engaged in even a fraction of the character assassination that has gone on.
It is time for the general public to have a window into BOE proceedings. It’s time for the public to see the ongoing firestorm for what it is: an angry sideshow aimed at destroying the reputations of a group of well-meaning individuals working tirelessly to improve our schools.
Catherine Foley
Hawthorne Drive, West Windsor
