There is a good chance that if you live in the Lakes Region of NH, you have heard about the brouhaha that took place at a recent meeting of the Gilford, NH School-board. The big to-do involved a parent who was upset with a reading assignment his daughter received, more specifically, "The Book". The event was immediately picked up by the media, local and national, who presented the issue in such a manner that there could be no question about the accuracy of the event's portrayal. (Thank you Fox for not muddling my head with useless info like facts and differing viewpoints).
I first came across this incident courtesy of our local newspaper which gave an accounting of the events. Naturally, the heading caught my eye so I read the article.
Knowing a bit about the good people employed at the school, I knew there had to be more to the story. But here is a funny thing about stories, they don't always include the facts, or at least all of the facts. One of my favorite sayings happens to be, "never let the facts interfere with a good story". (Thanks, I made it up myself as far as I know). Apparently, some of the reporters liked my saying as well.
The article referenced a YouTube video, and like the spectator at the scene of an accident, I couldn't look away. The video showed what seemed to be a somewhat reasonable person explaining his position and then becoming less reasonable as time went on. He was eventually escorted out of the meeting and arrested by a police officer for disorderly conduct. The video shows him being escorted outside to the cruiser, while the videographer tries to entice the few people accompanying him to express outrage.
The first question I asked myself upon watching the video was "who took this video and how did this person just happen to be at the meeting"? Well, once I saw the answer to my question #1, I had the answer to my question #2. My question #3 was "why isn't anyone else asking this same question"?
It became obvious to me that the event was staged. I say this for a number of reasons. First, the videographer is also the same person who happened to be "the friend" who was at the home of the parent and who happened to randomly open "The Book" to the infamous "Page 313". Secondly, it is obvious to anyone watching the video that it was edited to make the parent look reasonable even though it failed. Thirdly, one only has to "google" (is that a verb now?) the name of the videographer and conclude for oneself what is really going on here. In the words of the famous Inspector Louis Renault, "considering the seriousness of the issue, we have rounded up twice the number of usual suspects".
Which finally brings us to my point. Yes, the parent has a right to express his concern but there is so much wrong with the way he went about it. He claimed that his first amendment rights were violated, but they were not. Meetings are run under rules of order (e.g .Robert's Rules) and the moderator has the right under those rules to limit discussion. He claimed he was arrested for exceeding the two minute time limit, but he was not. He was arrested for disorderly conduct after refusing to be respectful of others, when asked to do so by the moderator. He claimed that there was a conspiracy between the police officer and the School-Board but there was not. The gentleman was belligerent and treated accordingly. The real conspiracy was between himself and his friend/videographer who concocted this mess.
The members of the School-Board especially the Chairwoman and the arresting Officer are to be commended for the way in which they treated the gentleman, both with courtesy and respect when he was not willing to reciprocate. Lastly, to the employees at GHS, continue to do the outstanding work that you do in preparing our children for the future. Bumps in the road are eventually smoothed over and this gentleman's nineteen minutes are up.
Cheers,
Dogwood
