Year: 2006

My good friend (and Tecumseh Local Schools alumnus), the erudite, highly regarded, intelligent, and witty Kathy Espich (a.k.a. howdypumpkin) has this to say about the local “civil rights” case:

I called Jim Gay the day after I last posted here…

The student that was harrassed is alleged to have been harrassed simply by being present while another student wore Klan attire. The student that wore the Klan attire was presenting a book report on a book that was anti-racism and pro-equality. The student did, in fact, don a Klan outfit at a point in a presentation and then removed it prior to ending the presentation. It was to be a demonstration of what certain people in the book looked like – what they wore. There was no active harrassment of anyone. At worst, the student giving the report made a bad call – thinking that it was just going to be a great way to boost their grade. At best, it would have been a non issue.

My question is, who is really the victim here? The student who viewed someone in Klan attire for a few moments? The student who worked hard on a report and went out of their way to give a complete presentation and is now, effectively, being harrassed for it? The mother who saw an opportunity to get at the admin/teachers she had some problem with? The teachers/admin people who will have to justify their actions in allowing a student to do something extra in a report that someone chose to interpret in a negative way? My children, who might now be further limited in their ability to express themselves in school? Or me – as a taxpayer – who is funding this exercise in futility? I’m kind of sick about the whole thing, really.

And, my biggest question is this: at what point would wearing a Klan uniform be quantified as harrassment? Surely, if someone’s in your yard and menacing you while wearing Klan attire, that’s a problem. But, if the child was harrassed simply by being in the presence of someone wearing the outfit in a historic presentation of such, then wouldn’t they be equally harrassed by visiting the Smithsonian or doing a google image search for same, or by viewing the movie “Fried Green Tomatoes“? Where is the line drawn in this case?

(linkage inserted editorially)

Kathy works as a local 911 dispatcher, and knows how grotesquely evil-hearted the media can be, having fielded numerous calls from bloodthirsty reporters looking for the latest deliciously morbid scoop.

If you ask me, and i’m not saying if you did or not, but i’d say Shanee Stevens is just out to make a fast buck. I don’t know the woman, so i can’t say what she’s like, and i’m no big fan of white people, but this case is starting to stink of greed, or at the very least, a gross misunderstanding of events.

Remember that Civil Rights case involving a local student at Olive Branch Middle School? New information is coming to light. It turns out that the offending party was indeed wearing a Klan outfit… briefly, as one part of a book report on an anti-racism/pro-equality book. The Klan getup was meant to demonstrate what some of the people in the book looked like. The kid may not have used the very finest judgment, but it sure seems now like it’s much ado about nothing. (A fuller report will come later, courtesy of a certain “Deep Throat”, who courageously went in where i dared not to uncover more details.)
Two questions spring to mind:

1. Why the bother, then? Did something else happen? Or is there some other motive for pursuing this case?
2. Why is the local media not reporting on this particular information?

We’ll have to wait and see what the answers to these questions may turn out to be….