My thinking was prompted by the posting on the FORE blog, on Saturday, February 11, of Kenny Rotner’s letter to Fosters in support of the Taylor lawsuit. I noticed that comments for that particular entry had been turned off. An emailed inquiry to the administrator of the FORE blog brought the following response (posted here in its entirety):
Thanks for writing to FORE with your concern. We at FORE have decided that it is best to avoid a protracted debate on the lawsuit on our website and have thus decided to disable the comment feature for issues regarding the lawsuit. FORE as a group has not, and will not, take a position on the Taylor vs. ORCSD lawsuit. FORE is made up of individuals in the community who often have various ideas on specific issues at hand. We are, however, bound together by our mission statement posted on the site.
FORE administrator
This is a remarkable statement, to say the least. First, the assertion that “FORE as a group has not, and will not, take a position on the Taylor vs. ORCSD lawsuit” would appear to be false on its face. FORE has posted a statement by one of its members in support of the suit on its official, public-facing communications outlet, and has taken steps to prevent anyone from debating that statement, pro or con. That sure looks like taking a position to me!
Secondly, it is notable that the reply from the administrator is unsigned. In the past, emails to the administrator of the FORE website have been signed “David K. Taylor”. We have no proof that Taylor actually wrote the email above, of course, but one can see why, if he were the author, he wouldn’t want to sign his name!
Furthermore, Rotner’s assertion that “Mr. Taylor filed his lawsuit, totally on his own and not as a member of FORE. He did not get FORE's sanction to do this…“ also rings false. A reading of the filings in the first case reveals that FORE members JoAnn Portalupi, Jennifer Rief, Kay Morgan and Stephanie Adams all provided documents to Taylor. FORE members John Collins, Jennifer Rief and Stephanie Adams have all attended one or more court hearings, presumably to show support for Taylor. That doesn’t look like “totally on his own” to me!
Therefore, I think that FORE is trying to pull the wool over our eyes. I think that the organization as a whole is behind this suit, and that the diversity of opinion they claim exists within their ranks, doesn’t.
But I could be wrong. So, I have a proposal: FORE says that it “is made up of individuals in the community who often have various ideas on specific issues at hand.” I say: prove it.
Here’s my offer: if FORE will post on its blog, within the next 48 hours, a piece in opposition to the lawsuit written by a bona fide FORE member, I will post on this blog an apology in which I will say uncharacteristically nice things about them (it may take me awhile, but I’ll come up with something, I promise).
Come on, FORE, go ahead…you all don’t like me much anyway, so here’s your chance to make me eat my words.
If, on the other hand, you are unable or unwilling to do so—well, I think that will tell everyone a lot, too.
--Tom Bebbington
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Links to Case Materials
I think we need to stand up as a community - FORE members or not - against this lawsuit. Lawsuit 1 had a ruling and the ruling suggested that members of the school board need to do a better job following policy. Hopefully that is happening. What will law suit #2 do? What will Taylor gain beyond what has already been accomplished? It is hurting our district. Period. No one would gain anything accept Taylor. If I am wrong - I hope someone will show me how and why. Erin Sharp
ReplyDeleteErin - I fully support this statement. David Taylor has been allowed to continue this charade for far too long. I urge any FORE member to meet Tom Bebbington's challenge! We all need to do what is right and at this time - it is to hire Dr. Morse. That is of paramount concern. I will go on record saying that I do not agree with all board actions to this date but the election is in a Month and the winds are shifting it appears...
ReplyDeleteI also urge ANY BOARD MEMBERS to step up and publicly denounce this lawsuit on this blog or elsewhere. Your voices are important to and should not be suppressed under fear of litigation. It is one of our most basic rights as Americans and shame on David Taylor for instilling fear into that right.
The time is now to STOP DAVID TAYLOR.
As of 3:01 p.m. today, that annoying "Jeopardy" theme music that had inhabited my head for the past 48 hours finally stopped. And...no response from FORE.
ReplyDeleteActually, that's not quite true. They did post a nearly carbon copy version of the statement we received from the FORE administrator. Apparently, they believe that if you repeat a falsehood often enough some people will begin to think it's the truth!
Therefore, I stand by my original statement. In the absence of evidence of any diversity of opinion within FORE, and given the active participation of FORE members in the suit(s), and given the posting of a statement in support of the lawsuit on FORE's blog, I believe that FORE as a whole stands with Taylor, and supports the goal of the suit--namely, halting the hiring of a new Superintendent.
Which gets me back to where we started: how can people who claim to be "Friends" of ORCSD possibly justify denying our children the educational leadership our District needs?