The Daily News
"The best thing about the future is that it
only comes one day at a time."
--Abraham Lincoln
1 Correction: it comes only one day at a time, Abie baby.Get your grammar proper.
2 But it's all right. It's a great quote anyway.
3 Last night I spent much of the evening ranting and raving in the DN about how I have made a career out of fighting for people's rights and speaking the truth any time I felt I was right and the other guy was wrong.
4 I have protested wars, gotten recruiters off campus, brought in the San Jose Peace Center, fought for the environment, stood up for the rights to free speech when the District tried to muzzle the students, teachers, press, etc. during the YB protest of two years ago.
5 Enough of that. Bottom line is that I've always felt it okay to speak my own mind, whether people agree or disagree with me, and I would stand in front of a thousand people and defend that right.
6 I would also speak up when I would see students being treated without respect or with their rights being muzzled.
7 So last night I wrote and wrote and wrote about what a swell, patriotic guy I am and always have been.
8 Argh. Who wants to hear some guy doing that?
9 So I'll shorten it. Bottom line is that I have always been unafraid to speak my mind, many times when others would be afraid.
10 Yesterday I found myself in a peculiar situation. As a person now closer to management than to the student body, I realize issues that come in from the other side.
11 CASE STUDY: Student A is a passionate, fight-for-what's right student. He clearly has anger and passion, but also a degree of sincerity. He constantly questions authority and wants answers to why things have to be the way they want to be. The other day he approached an administrator about having a huge meeting at school. For the record, it was a Hip-Hop meeting. He wanted it in the school's Theatre, and as a former director, I knew instantly it was a facilities issue. As an Activities Director, I knew it was a charter and supervision issue. There IS no chartered Hip-Hop club at the school, but there IS a Hip-Hop nation, sort of like the Raider Nation. They aren't the Raider's chartered Booster Club, but they are a presence.
12 He approached the Associate Principal with his meeting idea, and she instantly saw it as more than just a meeting, that a lunch time school event was in the works and told him he needed the approval of the Drama director, as well as an advisor. As of this writing she has no idea that the club isn't even a chartered school club. So she basically told him no, not until the Drama guy says yes. As a former Theatre director, I appreciated her respecting the facility. Make sense? See the irony unfolding?
13 Well, the fellow got the Drama director's approval and support, and during the morning announcements, which pass through MY office, he grabbed the mic (I had a class) and announced that the meeting was definitely on! The challenge was that he never approved the announcement NOT did he inform any of us that it was okay to proceed.
14 Within seconds the Principal, in a panic, called the Associate Principal, who was away, and told her. She called me and told me to talk to the student, and if I wanted, to cancel that announcement, which I instantly did, since it never came across my desk for approval, which is the school policy.
15 Okay, that's basically it. Of course, the ASB President showed up instantly, pissed beyond belief, but I too was pissed because I felt they were trying to bulldoze something past me, making ME look like I had no control over the bulletin, the students, etc. They felt it was a freedom of speech/expression issue, and I just thought it was outrageous that they tried to fly under the radar and do whatever they wanted. I was firm and fair, informing them that I absolutely believe they had the right to assemble and to proceed with their love of an amazing art form. But I also told them that everything that goes onto the bulletin and everything involving school activities must first go across my desk. I was firm, and told them that I was originally going to suspend the student who grabbed the mic without any form of approval.
16 They were kind, polite, and understood that they had put me in a very ugly situation, when all they needed was a nod from the Associate Principal, and then from me. Clearly they took the path of least resistence and avoided both. Sounds like something I would have done!
17 Well, word never got back to the original student who did the bulletin, and he bounced into my office and asked if he could announce the Hip-Hop meeting was back on. I said, "Not until I get official word from the Associate Principal. It's procedure." He left, and the next thing I know, he's in front of the Theatre working a Hip-Hop crowd saying things like, "THEY'LL NEVER STOP US! WE WILL BE HEARD!" etc. or words to that effect.
18
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
--Voltaire
19 I went on my e-mail not knowing ANY of that was going on, and had an e-mail from the Drama teacher. It said essentially that he fully supports the meeting and that it is okay to have it.
20 Bottabing.
21 I was essentially just trying to get supervision for Friday night's football game when all this hit the fan. My feeling was that they had every right to do all that, but I just wanted to know what it was about before approving it, because it might need some security in the event of words, and of fights. Safety issue, not rights issue.
22 Fortunately, the student who led the protest came in to my office later in the day and explained that he WAS upset, heated, and passionate for his art. I assured him that I have worked with Hip-Hop groups over the years and have had GREAT experiences with them, and that I even jammed with them on stage at YB. I told him that as a musician, I appreciate all forms of music, and that it was the procedure that I was upset about, that ultimately the buck stopped at my door. I can't allow the students to believe that the tail wags the dog. I need to be firm and let them know that there are procedures in place.
23 He understood, asked if I could step in and mediate on behalf of the students, and I told him yes, I would try, but I also don't want to come back looking like a hypocrite.
24 And he left.
25 A part of me thought, "Yeesh! The Administration I have built trust with is going to see this as students trying to run all over me and take advantage of me. But the students are going to see this as me being controlled by management, and the Man, and that I'm just all talk."
26
"The first 90 percent of a project takes 90 percent of the time. The last 10 percent takes the other 90 percent of the time."
--Anonymous
27 My world and welcome to it.
28 Great issues, and amazing perspective from a down-home radical. The issues in this DN have irony and humor and a lot of "what-goes-around-comes-around" do them. I'm knee-deep in a cosmic joke.
29 My solution is going to be working with facts and with level heads. When all are stubborn, the fire will roar. Putting out fires is the first mission of anybody trying to run a smooth ship.
30 Ya gotta love it.
31 Wish me luck.
32 I'll report back.
33 Peace.
~H~
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