A New Low

The WayneWho staff would like to start off by apologizing to our readers for missing the outrageous and slanderous comments of School Board Member Jay Wheeler. After slogging through so may of his "Dear Diary" narcissistic updates, we skipped reading the one from April 21 because we were doing research on the damage School Board Member Tom Greer's actions might have on our community in his quest to support his developer friends instead of our community. We would also like to thank WFTV for catching this story and not passing on exposing the hate speech that it contained. Your service to Osceola County is appreciated.

Although the WayneWho staff believes that the School Board as a whole is mostly incompetent as demonstrated by bad decision after bad decision, we tend to leave them to their own devices because out of all of the governments, they have the most difficult jobs to do. Educating our children is not an easy job, and it is not a job that will be done without making mistakes. Over the past year while the efforts of the school board have increasingly resulted in failure, it has become abundantly clear that their depth of experience has resulted in no substantial improvements in educational standards for our children. We assume this is why the "Hail Mary" issues of low-income teacher housing and school uniforms have surfaced as grand cure-all ideas. Of course hidden agendas of individual board members come into play with many of the nonsensical decisions the board creates for itself, but we tend to ignore most of those false issues in hopes our children will slip through the cracks of ignorances and stumble upon the knowledge that many teachers fight to render every day. If adding a school uniform into the daily lives of students would help teachers teach, or students learn, there would be no question of whether or not uniforms would be accepted, but the problems of our schools run much deeper than khaki pants and button-up shirts.

School Board Member Jay Wheeler, who is no stranger to controversy and has on multiple occasions shown his condescending feelings towards students and parents alike, exposed the true problems facing our schools. The poor and anyone who would question the authority of a school board are threats to our educational system if you are to believe his rants.

While we agree with Mr. Wheeler's assertion that subsidizing parents purchases of uniforms is not the responsibility of government, and in a time of lean budgets, not an acceptable use of tax dollars, attacking the public is unacceptable. In his words, "Everyone can afford Wal Mart, and if they can't they need to think about turning off their Cable TV, or stop buying alcohol, or cigarettes, and spend their money on their children." We denounce this as hate speech and are appalled that the rest of the school board, other local elected officials, candidates, and members of School District 1 have remained silent on this issue. Attacking those in our community that have been the most affected by bad local economic policies and a national recessionary cycle is a new low even for Mr. Wheeler. For many in our community, the very real choice between food for the family and gasoline to go to work has become a daily ritual. We also have to ask about the homeless children in our community who attend our schools. How will they be able to afford uniforms. The WayneWho staff does not consider this a joking matter or one that should be twisted into the political process. We find it sad that the separation of districts has already drug our political process into the depths of class warfare. Just because people are poor or on hard times, does not mean they are bad parents or that they are addicted to vices. If this where the case Britney Spears would be mother of the year instead of an example of the dangers of excess.

We do not understand why the School Board of Osceola County supports these type of verbal attacks on those it was meant to serve and this leads us to question their judgment when it comes to educating our children. The issue is not about uniforms Mr. Wheeler, the issue is about pride in community and pride in ones self. If you had any cognitive power left, you would have understood this point "from the most recent data by Virginia Draa from Youngstown state dated November 2005," which you have wrapped yourself in like a toddlers security blanket. Our children deserve better than being type cast based on data that has had many valid challenges just because Dr. Draa has contacted you about your grand experiment. An experiment that even Mr. Wheeler in his attack denotes he is willing to repeal if it does not work. So much for making the hard decisions and sticking by your convictions.

School Board Member Wheeler, the community awaits your apology.