Throwing everyone under the bus

Santa Rosa County can be very fickle at times.

As a collective group, it elected the current school board members and the new superintendent.

Now there is an uproar at hand. Some seek to revolt against the entire group.

Well, let’s see who gets the blame here.

We’ll begin with the assumption this is all the fault of Tim Wyrosdick.

When the lawsuit was filed by the ACLU, Wyrosdick was not the main man. He was an assistant superintended in charge of student instruction.

The actual superintendent named in the lawsuit was longtime position holder Johnny Rogers.

So, perhaps Wyrosdick should carry only 85 percent of the blame.

But, you know, there is the fact the consent decree was passed by all five school board members and no public input on the matter whatsoever.

With such an action on the part of all school board members, we need to lower Wyrosdick’s culpability here.

So let’s Wyrosdick is now only 75 percent to blame.

While we are doing the math, he was campaigning for office against an assistant principal at Pace High School during the election. Because of this fact, we’ll deduct another 5%. This brings the blame percentage to 70.

When the lawsuit was first filed, the board of education, led by former superintendent Johnny Rogers, did not seek any help from groups like the Liberty Counsel.

This is despite the fact that many said they took the information to the board offices so they could seek out free legal assistance on this case.

Was Wyrosdick aware of this information?

Maybe.

But was he in power to make a decision to contact them?

It is doubtful since the School Board has legal counsel with Paul Green and the Board sought outside help when the lawsuit was filed in the matter.

If you recall that was back in August of 2008.

So let’s deduct about 20 more percentage points on this blame list. (For those keeping score, the percentage now stands at 50.)

Now, all this mess with the ACLU actually started back in 2004 when they the schools were put on notice for these so-called questionable practices.

Even School Board Member Jo Ann Simpson said that Paul Green, the school board attorney, was directed by the board to develop a policy concerning the ACLU’s issues.

Wyrosdick had nothing to do with that.

So, subtracting 30 percent for this issue leaves him shouldering about 20 percent of the blame.

But Wyrosdick was not a voting member of the Board and today’s members were all on the board at that time and unfortunately did not follow up in making sure Green followed their wishes.

Each school board member should take more than four percent responsibility for this oversight on their part.

But with 20 percent of the blame being shouldered now by Wyrosdick, we can only give the Board his 20 percent. And that leaves Wyrosdick in the clear.

No, figures don’t lie, but liars can figure and this whole ordeal is merely an exercise to show messes like this one can be “blamed around” just about any way any one wants.

There are many who should take the blame for our current lawsuit situation.

Residents are ready to run someone out of town on a rail, but if the political lynch mob that is forming does this, it should make certain it gets the “right people.”