We got a call from Dr. David Schauer the other day, wanting to make sure we had all the available details regarding the seemingly back-to-back disclosures of two recent resignations, both based on claims of impropriety among Kyrene school principals and vice principals.
We were glad to hear from the guy at the top because, even though we suspect he was as surprised as the rest of us to find out what had been going on, we all know where the buck stops when blame gets handed out.
The superintendent’s phone call came at a perfect moment. We, and some of our readers, evidently, were wondering whether the timing of these revelations was just unfortunate coincidence or a colossal failure of the mechanism that is supposed to screen out misfeasance, malfeasance and just plain old stupidity.
After all, we place special demands on the people charged with our children’s wellbeing, and we like to think that potential problems will be uncovered before those people get into our classrooms.
But, hey, wait a minute. How do we do that?
When a school district fingerprints its prospective employees, checks their background, all we can learn at best is what indiscretions they already may be guilty of.
What we can’t quantify is any likelihood that the individual might one day depart from an otherwise clean slate and break society’s trust or violate its laws.
When you stop to think about it, based on the pre-screening process that school districts by law are required to perform, we know more about the employees in our schools than we do our next-door neighbors.
Dr. Schauer, of course, is aware of all this. He also believes, and seems confident in saying, that the Kyrene School District is doing a better job than ever before to ensure the community there will be no cover-up if and when misdeeds are uncovered.
“There may have been a time in the Kyrene district’s history where we would not have pursued these kinds of behaviors,” he said. “But those times are gone forever.”
Even with such assurances, however, doubts are bound to remain, again evidenced by what some callers to this newspaper had to say.
Dr. Schauer, it is evident, feels their pain.
“It looks like we want (these issues) to go away,” he said. “The truth is that every piece of information we know we would like to be public knowledge.”
As much as such a policy might help end the discourse, we know—and, most importantly, Dr. Schauer knows—that the overriding principles of American freedom won’t allow that to happen.
And that, even though it won’t stop the rumor mill, is about the best we can ask for.
