We’ve already discussed what is on the Rumor Has It website that Lakota schools produce to address a narrative they’d like to control. But when it comes to public relations, which is what that official website of the school intends, you can learn a lot more about the people behind the website from what they don’t want to talk about, as opposed to what they do. And in that regard, there is a big rumor running around out there about the school board itself, and how they behave at out-of-town education conferences that come up every time I speak to people in public about Lakota schools. When the Lakota school board comes up, one particular incident instantly comes to mind, and it permeates the conversation for the duration. I happen to know that this incident is not a rumor, as I have been informed about it by another school board member with direct knowledge. But I was also told about it by the wife of the former superintendent, as she was explaining in great detail the crazy sexual exploits of her husband, for which this same school board knew about, and participated in a very destructive cover-up that involved police reports and all kinds of public debate. While this isn’t a new story, as it involves members of the current school board, many of these individuals have survived several election cycles since. Their supporters don’t care about any bad behavior exhibited at these social events. I might care about it and think it’s reprehensible. However, voters who were aware of the trouble voted for these school board members anyway, and as far as I’m concerned, that sets the record straight regarding the kind of people on the school board and how they represent the community.
https://www.lakotaonline.com/resources/community-resources/rumor-has-it
The incident we are talking about involved a lot of drinking to the point of severe intoxication and dancing on tabletops in full view of the public. There is some cell phone footage circulating, but these are not pretty people. It’s not appealing footage. And the whole evening collapsed into a puking session, face down next to a toilet with clothes missing. So if the Rumor Has It page wants to address rumors in the community and put a different spin on the kind of people who find that behavior reprehensible, there is a lot they could say to get a positive narrative. Such as an argument that these same school board members tried to make about the superintendent, who was found to have an excessive sexual lifestyle that they declared was private. Because they thought his public job was worth the cost of his private faults. When I hear that kind of thing, I hear dollar signs because it costs a lot of money for people to hide private faults from public opinion. Which I would argue is the whole reason behind this facility’s plan; it was conceived by people with major private frailties to hide from the public a title of respect gained through the building of new schools. It is not uncommon for people who have experienced significant personal failures to seek public acceptance through titles and accreditation, in an attempt to hide them from the world. It happens all the time, and would undoubtedly be something to talk about on the Rumor Has It webpage. They could say on it that school board members at Lakota are only human and have human needs for drunkenness and sexual repression that need to be expressed through dancing and the removal of clothes, and what they do in their private life is their private business, even though they are on the road representing the Lakota School District. What happens at education conventions stays at education conventions.
However, that’s not what’s happening here. The purpose of the Rumor Has It website is to control the narrative, and that incident is one that they would like the public to forget. They already have their supporters, who don’t see anything wrong with the behavior. However, for those who find that behavior devastating, they may not have heard much about it unless the school addressed the issue on its website. Because the local media certainly didn’t cover the story. But you can’t keep something like that quiet, and among the kind of conservative voters I speak with, the church goers, the family-first GOP types, this whole incident is all the rage. They certainly didn’t vote for these current school board members. Instead, they worked to replace them with new board members, only to have them resign amid great controversy. And oddly enough, during all these news stories, this drinking incident that was on the tips of everyone’s tongues never made it into the newspaper or television coverage. So, people shake their heads, and the story takes on a life of its own, permeating the background of every social gathering. Because the school’s strategy isn’t transparent, it’s only talking about the kinds of things it wants, even listing the topics it has on the Rumor Has It website as a diversion from the real problems. It’s not CRT that is the problem, at Lakota, even though that is one problem. It’s not the policy of public comments. The transgender bathroom debates. It’s the quality of the school board members themselves and how they lead other adult employees. And when stories like the drunken binge are floating around out there, of course the other unionized employees are going to point to it to justify their bad behavior, such as dating other students, getting caught with porn addictions, and other human resource disasters that come from a culture that says, “I’m only human, so don’t judge me.”
When they don’t talk about it, more is said than what could otherwise be because the point of the page is to direct people’s attention to the topics they want to talk about, and to rally their progressive base. Not to address serious issues. A typical PR firm could easily make a statement about the pressures of running a school, noting that while out of town and away from their families, everyone deserves to let off a little steam, even if it involves a bit of indulgence, such as puking, and the clothes end up missing. Everyone is just trying to do a good job, and what they do during their private time is their own business. But saying that indicates bad judgment, and how can people who make those bad judgments also be held credible when it comes to asking the community to spend half a billion dollars on new taxes to pay to tear down old buildings and build new ones? How can people trust those individuals with the quote process, given that they are prone to poor judgment in their private lives? Why wouldn’t that same bad judgment carry over into their public roles as school board members? So, to avoid all that, the Rumor Has It page simply avoids addressing it, which tells you everything you need to know about their intentions with the page. It’s not about finding the truth or clarifying rumors. It’s about controlling the narrative, and they seem to think so little of the public that they expect to get away with it. This only makes people angrier and destroys the brand of the school because of the liberal nature of the people who run it and what they expect their roles to be in the process. And to avoid the opinions of a public that sees such social behavior as expensive camouflage to social causes meant to hide private failures. To avoid that can of worms, the topic is not mentioned, even though it’s the only thing people care about.
I will never vote for any more money to public schools, I think they are a broken mess that teaches all the wrong things to kids. I believe government schools are detrimental to our society, so I’m always a hard ‘no’ on any tax increases. I despise the socialist nature of the way the public education system was created. However, as a community issue, many voters support or oppose various aspects for a multitude of reasons. As long as these school board members remain on the board, I don’t see the public supporting any tax increases. If they truly want a chance to pass any levies, they should resign for the good of the school. If they want to be competitive in a voucher environment, people will take their kids to places that don’t have stories like the one mentioned here hanging in the background all the time. The mistakes of the past are what will hold back any passage of a levy request and are part of the reason it has been over a decade since a levy has passed. People have strong feelings about these stories that emerge when a school district requests more funding, and because many people are aware of the issues, even if they don’t mention them on the Rumor Has It website, they still have knowledge and will vote accordingly. And even if they have gotten away with much, as long as these school board members are running the show, people aren’t going to give them more money off their property taxes. Because there are just too many damaged relationships with the community to support a tax increase, I think they will probably have to learn that with a few tax attempts that will be very bloody and embarrassing before they learn the hard lesson. And by then, we’ll have a new governor in Ohio, and School Choice will expand significantly. And parents aren’t going to want to send their kids to a school where the school board is so messed up. And the Lakota school will learn all too late that the rumors they didn’t talk about destroyed their economic viability, and they’ll only have themselves to blame.
Rich Hoffman
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