The Rockingham County School Board chair, in a grammatically questionable fashion, accused a reporter of trying to get them at something. The quote from the Daily News-Record has the fellow saying, “But it's just trying to find us in something like ‘Hah, we got ya.’” I use the quote without reservation, knowing that the DNR reporter is better at being a journalist than the School Board chair is at being an educator or a political leader.
If indeed the reporter was trying to catch the board at something, she did. She and her readers caught them firing the law firm that’s represented the School Board for 60 years. The rumored reasons in the community imply that it was a highly personal move, specifically, that the board was upset about something said by a relative of a member of the firm.
The rumors are fun. They may even be right. Because another one says the firm pointed out that the way the board fired the firm was not the way a public body does such things under Virginia law, and then demonstrated the right way by resigning its commission with the board. Being a law firm, they presumably did not say, “You can’t fire me; I quit,” but the sentiment was there. Presumably, they also did not quote Johnny Paycheck, who famously sang, “Take this job and shove it.”
I broadcast these rumors because I so want them to be true.
What follows is not rumor.
I attended the most recent hearing on the lawsuit filed by the county School Board’s new attorney against the city’s School Board. The RCPS’s new attorney did not speak at the hearing, unless he said, “Good afternoon, your honor,” while I wasn’t listening. In legal terms, he was representing city teachers who feel harmed because they don’t want to follow rules that don’t exist that they heard about from a meeting they didn’t attend. In realistic terms, he was representing the out-of-town political organization helping the aggrieved teachers. The attorney from the political organization did all the legal work from a TV screen in front of the courtroom.
Imagine Max Headroom meets Punch and Judy.
Now I’m not trying to find the county School Board in something like a gotcha, to use their phrasing, but I do wonder about how the board will conduct its legal matters. If, for instance, someone decides to file suit against the board for starting meetings with a Christian prayer, will the local attorney represent the board or be the local arm of ADF, the group suing the city? If ADF is called in to defend the board’s mix of politics and religion, will the local firm still handle the non-religious issues? Boards get sued. School systems get sued. It happens over personnel issues and student discipline issues, to name a couple. Who’s going to handle those? Will it be the local firm, or will the work be outsourced to a political outfit in Arizona?
The point of having a local school board in every city and county in Virginia is to give local control of children’s education to people representing the locality. The board majority in Rockingham County has created three months of unnecessary turmoil with outside approaches to local issues. The books banned came from a list maintained by Moms For Liberty. The “model policy” for pronouns comes from Richmond. Their new attorney has been the local face of a political group in Arizona. How is any of that local?
Is it fair to suggest that this board seeks outside help because the members don’t know what they’re doing? Possibly. After all, one of them speaks of gays as being different from “normal” people, while using Wonder Woman for a social media avatar.
For the record, Wonder Woman has been a gay icon for longer than BotkinRose represented the School Board.