Two quick things about school policing and safety before I head off for what seems like the 1,500th pre-school day meeting I've attended this school year.
In my prior post, I rambled on and on about APS and its pay of police officers and "campus security aides". Read below if you dare. Now comes news Gil Lovato is out as APS Police Chief. Of course, in classic APS bumbling public relations style, Superintendent Everitt makes this major announcement about APS police and security on the day of the biggest massacre of students in United States history.
Meanwhile, regarding the biggest massacre of students in United States history, I have to admit that my cynicism about school shootings is extremely high. In particular, I tend to focus on how the media covers school shootings on a "number killed" basis. A kid walks into a middle school and kills two students, and it makes national news as a fifth or sixth story. The killer is more gruesomely successful and ends seven lives and it's an above-the-fold story pretty much nation-wide. Then, as the numbers go up, the media newscycle hysteria intensifies to what we have seen over the last 18 hours. During these, admittedly harrowing, times I like to ponder on the far less-reported two kids killed story. Just two. But don't they count just as much? Why are they simply quickly forgotten, then filed into a list that's trotted out whenever a supposedly 'bigger" and more important mass killing comes along?
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
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5 comments:
It sounds like going away quietly is preferable for Lovato to facing the many allegations against him. He's 60 and probably could retire with a nice pension. But Sam Bregman will try to get them to pay him a bundle to go away -- it's worked for lots of others. I hope it backfires.
only in America!
Sam Bregman will sue the district for NOT firing his client.
Everitt did not bumble the accouncement. She had two pieces of really bad news; 1. a very senior aps administrator is being canned for cause; 2. she has no intention of releasing public records (the truth)surrounding the administration of public resources and interests.
What better time to slide bad news under the radar, than while worse news is lighting the sky.
The papers, in a few days, aren't going to back up a few days to cover this. it's done.
No bumble, more like a PR homerun.
Ched: I'm gonna have to respectfully disagree on the PR Homerun angle. Many news items were swept under the rug by yesterday's event at VTech, but APS announcing that its police/security had problems at the top made it an easy direct tie-in on the news channels I watched yesterday. It was the first truly local story post-VTech coverage, and didn't make for a pretty tie-in from an APS perspective, imho.
I will concede your point that the batter's box was well lit when she hit the ball.
Please concede mine that, the ball is out of sight. Homerun or fouled over the fence; no one is talking about the fact Everitt's refusal to release public records; attaching her own label, "confidential" is a blatant and indefensible violation of the law; the NMIPRA. The law offers no exception for "personnel" records.
If there were a legal justification for keeping taxpayers and stakeholders in the dark; it stands to reason that Everitt would lay it on the table. She hasn't.
I am grateful for the opportunity to raise such issues on your blog. I have great faith in sunlight as a poultice for corruption and incompetence.
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