Letter to the Fosters Editor submitted today responding to the July 2, 2011 article by Roni Reino, "Administrators defend blog OR principal said led to her leaving" and offering criticism of ORCSD Board communication:
About OR blog
To the editor: I was intrigued to read your recent article entitled "Administrators defend blog OR principal said led to her leaving." I agree completely that participation in a blog does not indicate agreement with the opinions expressed. Multiple opinions should be expressed in any public discourse. Nonetheless, when the language and discussion turns mean-spirited, it is the job of the blog administrator(s) to step in and remove offending comments. In the case of the online forum Oyster River Community Resource, this did not happen in a timely manner, if at all.
While I agree that many of the offending comments would have been voiced in the community despite the existence of the blog, this fact does not remove responsibility from the blog administrators to maintain a healthy, respectful forum. In a face-to-face public meeting, participants that express inappropriate comments can be stopped by public pressure or, in extreme cases, asked to leave. The same pressure to maintain civility is not felt in a community blog where cowardly comments are posted anonymously, and where blog administrators are hesitant to remove them. I interpret the lack of oversight by the blog administrators to indicate their tacit endorsement of these malicious comments.
Finally, I was somewhere between amused and perplexed when blog administrator Bebbington stated that "the current (school) board has made great strides in openness and communication." Was this a serious comment or an attempt at humor? Like so many others in the Oyster River community, I am of the opposite opinion.
The current school board has made several highly questionable decisions and has offered little in the way of explanation except for a few inconsistent statements and actions. This includes the board's decision not to hire Justin Campbell for permanent high school principal, with some board members stating concerns over school funding, followed quickly by their decision to buy-out Superintendent Howard Colter's contract at a cost of approximately $185,000 to the taxpayers.
Thorough explanations for these decisions have not and likely will not be given to the taxpayers. Do these actions constitute "making great strides in openness and communication"? Not in my book.
Glen Miller
Lee
Just a reminder that commenting anonymously is no longer allowed on this blog. In addition, we do remove and clearly identify that content was removed should a person engage in unfounded personal attack. This has been done as recently as June 28th.
It is our wish that commenters will feel free to participate in discussions here and confident enough in their opinion to attach their name. However, we also wish to provide an avenue for participants to express opinions and ideas that may be contrary to the "accepted" opinion of their social or professional environment and pseudonymous comments facilitate this.
As always, comments are open — what do you think?
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