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An individual identifying himself as a teacher at Mauldin Middle School called the Russ and Lisa program on WORD Radio last Wednesday and reported an incident that the Greenville County School District later declared was a misunderstanding.
The report, however, touched a nerve in local residents who have been observing quietly as the district’s Christmas break became a politically correct winter break and Christmas concerts became winter concerts.
The report indicated that the Beta Club wanted to give a gift to a needy family in the community and someone at the “district office” informed the teacher serving as Beta Club advisor that the presentation could not be called a Christmas Gift and suggested that they might want to wait until January 2008 to present the gift to the needy family to avoid an association with Christmas.
For four days, people were calling the radio station, commenting on the controversy. On Friday, December 14, a district spokesman Susan Clarke issued an apology and an explanation. (Oby Lyles, the senior district spokesman, is recovering from surgery).
“We regret that directions for an accounting procedure have been misunderstood.
“The response to the Mauldin Bookkeeper inquiry from the Central Office addressed the need to write the purpose of the Christmas gift on the bookkeeping ledger. When reviewing the finances of a district-sponsored student organization, the district would not be able to determine the purpose of the Christmas gift since we don’t use student-collected funds for Christmas gifts unless giving directly to the needy or to support a community service project.
“The bookkeeper was told to write ‘service project’ or ‘to meet a community need’ on the ledger. The advice was not intended to tell the organization how to label the card or the gift.”
The radio program host and station news director attempted to contact someone at the district administrative office for an on-air explanation, with no results.
Many of the individuals calling the radio station and commenting on the incident seemed to be unaware that the 12-member school board establishes policy. District employees carry out that policy.
Policy pertaining to political correctness is unwritten, and passed on verbally to the employees so as to protect the school board members from backlash by the electorate. When a public relations problem involving political correctness occurs, board members that create the policy become silent and allow the employees to suffer the consequences.
The current school board majority is in step with the ACLU and will remain unchanged unless there is a public outcry by their constituents, and that is unlikely.
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