It’s not false accusations or character assassination to repeat what a person says about themselves. Matt Miller, the highly political superintendent at Lakota schools, has said quite a lot. He told police during a recent interview that he and his wife would “role-play” and engage in “pillow talk,” which on one occasion included a discussion of drugging, molesting, and recording three kids. That is consistent with the divorce statements made by his wife that were revealed in a recent police report. His wife also correlated that Miller asked her to babysit the three kids (who are children in the Lakota school district from people they knew as a couple), drug them, molest them, and record herself in sexual activity. She says she did not do any of that. She also said that Miller asked her to have sex with their son and his friends. Those aspects of Matt Miller’s private life were part of a Cincinnati Enquire article that came out on September 28^th, 2022, titled “Lakota Superintendent Investigation: Here’s what we know.” It’s worth reading, to say the least. There is a lot more to the story that the police would eventually report that were consensual adults’ actions. The part with the children falls within the realm of fantasy and isn’t against the law by itself.    An audit of his phone records only costs $5000.00 and likely would be worth doing, especially since that same article, and the police report, indicates that there were naked pictures of children sent to his wife from Matt Miller’s phone, and that would certainly be a crime. But that would open up a whole new can of worms, and many people are having trouble with what they currently know. This has been one of those cases that is a nightmare for any community. I would argue that it’s good to know these things about the people we pay for as public employees. But some people would rather not know which is the real story. As outrageous as Matt Miller’s sex life reported by him has been, the community reaction to it is the real indicator of the cause.  

The shock has come from the community’s reaction to this story; many people are angry that there were whistleblowers who reported this story. But they aren’t angry at all about what Matt Miller, as a superintendent, has done, which he has admitted to. Given how he gave his statements at the end of the school board meeting held on September 28^th, there is obviously a lot more to the story. If he has admitted to what he has, just think of what he still hasn’t. Which is the reason he worked during his divorce to keep his online dating profiles out of that case, especially the Ashley Madison and Tinder accounts, which his legal representation claimed would reveal Miller’s most private and intimate disclosures exposed solely to embarrass him and not for reasons relevant to the case. Well, the best way to not be embarrassed by such things is not to do them.   And it should be expected that a public figure like Matt Miller would know better than to engage in any socially reckless behavior, let alone as much as he obviously has. Many defenders of Matt Miller are hoping for a broader legal defense of him due to the perceived character assassination. Well, that would be interesting, considering what we know. Legal action beyond divorce court would allow much more to be learned during discovery, and that forensic audit of the phone records would put much to rest. And these dating profiles would undoubtedly be relevant to how he has conducted himself as a paid employee of the Lakota school system. Yet, the worst of the news likely is that which he has already admitted to police under his own voluntary response during the police report investigation that was reported in detail in the Enquirer article. 

The Miller defenders have turned to call the whistleblowers “Pearl Clutchers,” indicating that their high moral standards are somehow bad. But if people can’t look at this case and not see bad, what does that say about them? Or the kids they are raising? Why has the school board been so slow to act on this? What does that say about them? The previous board members, some of who were voted out during the last election, knew much of this information, but they kept Matt anyway; they even gave him a raise. What were they thinking? Apparently, many people truly think that the drugging of kids and talking about molesting them is normal behavior, and that has been the most stunning aspect of the entire ordeal. Rather than be angry at Matt Miller, they have taken the teacher’s union strategy of attacking the whistleblowers with derogatory terminology like “pearl clutchers, or huggers” and stating that it’s not good to “judge” other people. Well, it is good to judge; it is what makes us all different from animals. Animals do what they are biologically programmed to do. Humans can take memory and experience and make future judgments based on intellectual history, which is what education of any kind is supposed to do. If we have so many people rationalizing animal behavior, which is all that sex is, then there isn’t much hope for any of them on any topic.

We can’t even have an intelligent discussion about CRT and sexual grooming in the classroom if they will rationalize the drugging and molestation of children as a fantasy. When a public employee is in charge of 17,000 students, if they can’t see something wrong with that information, there is no discussion on other matters that can be relevant. People should be able to agree that any sex with children is bad, whether in practice or in “pillow talk.” But obviously, what has been revealed is that people in the Lakota school district can’t even agree on that. This is why Matt Miller seems oblivious to why anybody is even upset about his sexual lifestyle. That is how far society, in general, has fallen. Matt Miller is a product of that fall. Not the cause.  Trying to appeal to him on any sexual concerns at Lakota schools would obviously be a worthless enterprise.

When Matt Miller stated at the school board that these attacks on him started a few years ago, he was right. But he dismissed the cause as if it had nothing to do with it. Matt Miller has openly worked to eliminate whatever school board members have been elected that were conservative. He recently pushed to force Todd Parnell to resign over woke statements, and Darbi Boddy wasn’t on the board for more than a few days before the push to get rid of her started. He has played vicious political hardball, so he should have expected much action to come back in his direction. But the way he handled Covid caused most of his current political problems and created such a storm that many Republican moms in the background were thinking of joining Darbi Boddy on the school board. Matt Miller made himself into the Lakota version of Dr. Fauci and Gretchen Whitmore with his mask policies and yielding all control of Lakota school over to the Butler County Health Department and their ridiculous mask policies.

Nobody expected that what would come out about Matt Miller would be all these bizarre sexual lifestyle revelations. And by themselves, they might be gross. We would expect a person leading an education environment to be less animal and more human in what they think about. But when he says to police on a police report that is then reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer where he was willing to admit that he asked his wife to drug, molest, and videotape three kids, that we are all supposed to accept that it was just pillow talk and move on, there is a major disconnect with reality. And that people who find that behavior outrageous are somehow the real problem as “pearl clutchers.” It should be that 100% of the Lakota community should find any sexual behavior toward kids as terrible, whether thought about or acted upon. Yet that is not the case. The “pearl clutchers” are not welcomed in this discussion and are hated for pointing out what people don’t want to see. And revealed in that underbelly of our society is the real problem, a story that is much worse than anything Matt Miller has done. And by his own admission, that is quite a thing to consider.

Rich Hoffman