Jun 23 2009
Score One for Facebook: Board Changes Mind & Teacher Keeps Job
And now… The Rest of the Story.
Lawrence KS High School Government teacher Tim Latham was fired after his first year of teaching in the district. A veteran teacher, some speculated that his dismissal was due to his conservative stance on the issues in the classroom; a position not uncommon in red-state Kansas, but unwelcome in against-the-grain liberal thinking Lawrence.
It was a story largely ignored by the main stream media, but covered by bloggers and eventually Fox News picked it up. A Facebook group calling for the reappointment of Mr. Latham exploded from 200 to 2000 members. In an unusual reversal of position, the Lawrence school board has decided to reinstate Mr. Latham.
Wow. It’s not often that people in leadership positions admit to making a mistake. So often we hear about cover-ups, and simple hard-headedness where once a decision has been made we’re gonna stick with it, right or wrong. Well done Lawrence Board of Education. It takes courage to admit a mistake and change your mind after weighing the evidence presented to you.
3 responses so far
Create a free edublog to get your own comment avatar (and more!)
With today’s information technology you can’t away with nonsense like you could in the “old days.”
I’ve often wondered if the death of privacy, with cameras everywhere and potential for scandals to be shouted to the corners of the earth might actually encourage people to behave better. Probably not, but at least now it’s as you say & harder to keep things quiet.
I think we can look at this in a positive light though. Outside of Philadelphia, a bunch of kids, and a Mom, assulted a high school student after class. Due to the quick post to Youtube.com, the investigators were able to locate and identify the offenders.