Letter to the Editor
January 20, 2016
Shame on your entire staff for their lazy, sloppy reporting surrounding the removal of Karen Walker from the school.
I know that student newspapers are inclined to look at a situation like this and report from the biased point of view that it is ALWAYS the big-bad administration that has done wrong. In the history of time, you would have us believe, school leaders have never made the responsible choice to remove a teacher they deem inappropriate to be teaching.
I notice that throughout your reporting, you have consistently failed to ask any real questions of those in the best position to answer—Karen Walker and Mark Leeper.
You have repeatedly beat up on the administration for scrupulously adhering to their duty to maintain confidentiality throughout the proscribed process. You have conveniently failed to report on what Karen Walker has to say about all this.
And why is that?
Heaven knows she and her husband have not adhered to the non-disclosure provisions of the union agreement. Indeed, they have shamelessly posted on Facebook, held public rallies where Mark Leeper has made disparaging representations about why she has been removed and Karen Walker has used social media to repeatedly maintain that she “has done nothing wrong.”
They have encouraged others to disparage the college for failing to disclose that which they know they can not disclose all while enjoying the protection that silence affords them.
I get why they are doing it—they get to create their own narrative with select fact-sharing all while knowing the administration will not contradict them with a few juicy facts of their own—I just don’t get why you are letting them get away with it.
Be journalists: Put their foot the fire on what she is being charged and why. Demand that they tell you and encourage the students who are blinding supporting them to demand answers too.
**Our policy states it will publish signed letters to the editor of 250 words or less. We made an exception this week. We believe it is pertinent for our readers to be able to express their opinions and, due to the sensitive nature of this particular subject, we chose to overlook that the letter was sent from an anonymous server.**
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Bruce E Byers • Feb 2, 2016 at 6:53 pm
From my perspective, the only vitriolic document appearing in the Wayne Stater has been this posting, and this posting only. The author has failed to disclose his true role as the officer initiating the impulse driven discharge. His attempt to hide an act unsupported by WSC policy by conjuring a sense of threat attempted to sidestep union policies. The record’s will show that the faculty members named followed union procedure, and had to apply legal pressure to get the “evil” administration to simply use existing policies. Attempting to blame the Wayne Stater for failing to report the attempted “spin” of impropriety and scandal is utterly irresponsible and bereft of facts. I laud the Wayne Stater for its measured coverage, as well as printing this 1/2 thought out tantrum, sparsely cloaked as (1) informed critique of the Wayne Stater’s professional judgement and (2) a mere opinion. It merely reveals the anger over the failure to print stories buried in secrecy and clearly questionable assertions of utterly abhorrent faculty action. The Wayne Stater has shown respect for an author that appears to have deserved little. I contend the record will fully vindicate the faculty members crudely and personally attacked. Hardly an example of measured journaling.