Last Saturday, a high school math teacher named Truman Buffett posted an online video that threw a Seattle private school into a panic. The video accuses administrators at the Bush School, a K–12 school with 560 students, of being more lenient toward students whose parents make significant donations.
Case in point: a racially charged letter, circulated in January 2010 by a senior student whose friends are known around the school as the “real rich boys crew.” It was a fake acceptance letter from Harvard University that began: “I hope you is as excited to read dis’ as I is to write it!… We know dat you ain’t the brightest kid on the block, but you ‘sho is tha coolest… You have to earn your keep and get grades or we’ll kick your itch ass out on the cold ass mutha fuckin street nigga, naked, let your white ass get did from behind!” (The full letter is posted here.) The administration’s decision to not punish the student who allegedly wrote the letter, Buffett says, contributed to Buffett’s eventual departure from the Bush School.
Over time, the real rich boys crew had “gotten the message from the administration that there really was nothing that they could do that was ever going to get them in any sort of real trouble,” Buffett says. “There was a pattern on the part of the administration to turn a blind eye.”
Buffett no longer works at the Bush School. In March of last year, he and head of school Frank Magusin had a conversation about renewing Buffett’s contract. “It was pretty mutual,” Buffett says, “in that I’d already given him a letter saying, in effect, if I can’t feel better about this administration, I have no intention of returning.” His contract was not renewed.
Buffett says he decided to finally tell this story when a current Bush student approached him for an interview as part of a student project called the “Big Broadcast”—24 hours of student-generated content. But when school administrators learned about the student’s story, he says, they threatened to pull the plug on the entire Big Broadcast project. So Buffett made a video of his own.
“There is no disagreement between faculty and administration about what this letter is,” Buffett says. There is also no disagreement about who wrote it; the student signed his name to it and was, Buffett says, “unrepentant.”
The faculty unanimously called for the student’s suspension in winter, Buffett says, and the school deans recommended that the student be suspended for three days. Jack McHenry, upper school director, called a meeting and assured the faculty that the student would be “held accountable,” Buffett says.
But McHenry called another faculty meeting, where he reportedly announced that “the school’s response would be nothing,” according to Buffett. No suspension, no written explanation, nothing.
“We spent time as a faculty during that meeting discussing the family’s wealth,” Buffett recounts. “We spent time discussing the student’s father’s considerable influence… What none of us heard during that meeting was any sort of moral or ethical justification for this idea of throwing out all of the disciplinary action that we had decided was the right thing to do.”
Bush School administrators—including McHenry and head of school Magusin—refused to comment for this story, and communications director Maia Kaz said the Bush School has no comment on the matter.
But to former students who spoke to The Stranger say they aren’t surprised by Buffett’s story and that wealth-based favoritism was not unusual. (It has also been written about before, including a 2007 story in The Stranger.) Lucas Epling, who graduated from the school in 2008, says “there was a very clear separation” between students based on wealth.
“The school wants to make money,” Epling says. “If they had a problem with a student who was a big donor, as opposed to a student whose family wasn’t a big donor, they’d side more with the big donor. Any business would, because they’re a business.”
Is there a culture of racism at the Bush School? “Maybe the students aren’t outright racist,” Epling says, “but they weren’t informed.”
Tuition for the 2010–2011 school year was $19,315 for kindergarten to second grades and $25,760 for 9th to 12th grades. And according to the school’s 2009 tax filing, donations fell by $2 million (from $3,851,361 to $1,851,972). The Bush School, like nonprofits everywhere, is scrambling to keep its donations coming.
DJ Johnson, who also graduated in 2008, agreed. “I was the only African American guy in the high school, and I definitely felt cornered and awkward,” he says. “I was expected to speak for the whole community constantly.” Other students, he said, “made constant racial jokes, used the n-word—tons of people did. They see some black guy and say he was a gangster, instantly profile them as something negative. There was a Hispanic student, and if something went missing, they’d always blame him for stealing it.”
There was a “rich white guy crew” when Johnson was in school as well: “Lots of kids were baffled by how these not-so-great students ended up at great colleges. And a lot of those kids were wealthier. There was so much favoritism that it was really hard for some students.”
Buffett’s experiences with racism at schools are painful and personal. His older, adopted sister, Vera, was African American and routinely suffered racial harassment at her middle school in Wisconsin. “We saw people at the schools that we were a part of tolerate this, not understand that this was a big deal, not take it seriously.” One Friday afternoon in 1983, Vera left school, went home, and hanged herself.
“Bad behavior or bullying or harassment is going to prompt the administration to check the ledger books and see what sort of donations have been made by a family before they decide whether or not they’re going to act?” Buffett says. “They’re giving a how-to guide on privilege—a how-to guide on how to move through the world with money and do what you want.” 
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It should be pointed out that Truman Buffett and Brendan Kiley, the author of this advocacy reporting, are Facebook friends and Seattle theater colleagues. Go read the comments on Mr. Kiley’s Slog posts on this topic to read alternate viewpoints. This article is shamefully biased.
Truman fails to mention that in 2008-2009 he was disciplined for touching a student he was screaming at and that he has been on a mission to destroy Bush ever since his contract was not renewed in 2010 because he had destroyed all of his relationships at the school. He ignores anything positive the school has done (mandatory anti-racism workshops for high schoolers, a diversity series open to the public, a full-time diversity director, etc.), picking out the rich kid stereotype to exploit and taking advantage of the school’s inability to defend itself without violating privacy, even though his own kids will continue to attend even whiter, richer schools. Advice to a disgruntled ex-employee: Move on and go be successful at something. Deal with your anger (which has nothing to do with racism) in therapy and get a job.
i don’t believe the stranger claims to be unbiased…out of recognition of the fact that the very notion of ‘unbiased’ is an inherent farce. the idea that anyone is coming from an unbiased place only serves to normalize and neutralize the particular interests of those considered unbiased. everything and everyone is invested, interested, and biased in some way. at least the stranger doesn’t hide its bias behind false pretenses the unbiased.
the notion of the unbiased only serves to obfuscate and neutralize the bias behind those deemed unbiased. everyone is invested, interested, and biased in some way. at least the stranger doesn’t hide its bias behind the pretense of the unbiased.
@3, ok, how about intentionally misleading. Go read the in Mr. Kiley’s blog posts and then watch Mr. Buffett’s video, and them ask yourself if the Stranger has done a good job on this story.
@5 should read “Go read the comments in Mr. Kiley’s blog posts…”
This is journalistic cheating, to post this story again, so that all the commentor’s discussion is absent, when obviously the commentors who know the real story have already posted clearly, honestly, earnestly and extensively under this author’s blog two and four days ago, respectively. To understand this story and this dishonest reporting it is imperative to read those comments. See Kiley’s Tuesday May 17 blog: http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archive… or else GOOGLE: The Stranger Controversial Bush School Letter and see also, Sunday May 15 Kiley blog: http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archive… or GOOGLE: Math teacher explains bush school stranger .
Click on this author’s name (Brendan Kiley) and then go to his The Stranger “blog” links and look at his Sunday May 15 story “Bush Math Teacher…” and also his Tuesday May 17 “The controversial Bush Letter…” story and then be sure to read all the comments if you want to know what really happened.
At the top of this page, CLICK on the author’s name: “Brendan Kiley.” Then, at the page you arrive at next, look on the right side of the page and click on “blogs”. Next, find Kiley’s blog about this story from Sunday, May 15: “Bush Math Teacher.” Read the comments! Next, scroll down to find his blog from Tuesday, May 17: “The controversial Bush letter”. Read all the comments to BOTH those blogs to learn what really happened and what really is going on here.
Of all the terrible, terrible things going on in this city/county/country, an incident at a private school from over a year not only gets a feature story, but also generates this vociferous overreaction?
If you didn’t like this story, fine, but save your self-righteous indignation for something that actually matters. Sorry if I can’t get worked up about the trials and tribulations of attending PRIVATE SCHOOL when so many other fucked up things are going on at PUBLIC schools.
Hey asshole! Why don’t you stop being a yellow journalist, quit taking what a FIRED math teacher said as fact and quit portraying The Bush School as racist. The way you’re writing about this only goes to show the shoddy quality of the stranger’s writings. Also Truman is lying. The student who “approached” him NEVER DID, he was approached BY Truman because Truman apparently didn’t have the cojones to do so himself. Hes manipulative, bitter, and dangerous at this point.
The Bush School is NOT racist. The administration certainly isn’t, and neither are the students. While there are fewer minorities in the school than whites, it certainly isn’t because the school is racist. In fact the school, like most private schools in the area TRIES to get more students of colors and different socio economic backgrounds. If you want to see racist, see the segregation at garfield, whether its intended or not.
This is not to mention the schools outstanding attempt to teach about white privilege and earned and unearned advantage. The school regularly holds conversations and discussions about privilege and how the students and the school can work to decrease the privilege barriers.
Please keep in mind that the “Real Rich Boys Club” was actually created to make fun of a stupid SAAS group that was called “The Rich Boys Club”.
Protip, stranger… talk to current students if you want to find out whats going on. Quit being yellow journalists, quit being disgusting excuses for writers, you’re not getting the full story and you know it. TALK TO CURRENT STUDENTS, AGAIN.
“Bush student approached him for an interview as part of a student project called the “Big Broadcast”—24 hours of student-generated content. But when school administrators learned about the student’s story, he says, they threatened to pull the plug on the entire Big Broadcast project. So Buffett made a video of his own.”
NO. This information is incorrect. Here’s the complete truth, plain and simple:
1. Student needs a story for the Big Broadcast, and asks his Facebook friends if they have ideas.
2. Truman sees this. He says “I’ve got a story for you” and continues to manipulate the student saying that if he doesn’t say anything, he is ‘part of the problem’.
3. The student returns to Bush, tells two teachers about the idea. They sit down and talk about it, and mutually decide, weeks before the broadcast, not to air it, because it didn’t fit in with the trend of the broadcast, and because the student felt manipulated. Please note; *the administration had no involvement with this issue*.
4. Truman decides to air this via another story.
Please, if you’re going to attack a school and its administration, at least, for the love of good reporting, get your facts straight.
“”There is no disagreement between faculty and administration about what this letter is,” Buffett says. There is also no disagreement about who wrote it; the student signed his name to it and was, Buffett says, “unrepentant.””
Actually, sorry, there was disagreement. As one of the students who read this letter first hand last year I can attest to that. There was no doubt that this student… “Wallace,” was involved. That said, there was great doubt as to the degree he was involved, and whether or not he was actually the author or simply the recipient. The controversy lies not in whether the student should have been punished for writing it, because there is no evidence for that, but for whether he should have been punished for refusing to tell who did. There were multiple people who were suspected to have played a role, and for that reason, the administration chose not penalize the student for something he may or may not have done.
After all, that would just make him a scapegoat, right? Like… for show? Is that really the result people so crave?
Also, interesting how the letter which has now been posted publicly is an… abridged version.
Ah, the power of the media. Experience Education, everyone!
Hey asshole! Why don’t you stop being a yellow journalist, quit taking what a FIRED math teacher said as fact and quit portraying The Bush School as racist. The way you’re writing about this only goes to show the shoddy quality of the stranger’s writings. Also there are MANY falsehoods in Truman’s video. The student who “approached” him NEVER DID, he was approached BY Truman because Truman apparently didn’t have the cojones to do so himself. Also the administration NEVER said they would pull the plug on the programs, it was the head of the program himself. Truman manipulative, bitter, and dangerous at this point.
Also there is the issue that there was uncertainty about who actually wrote the letter. No one came forward, no one admitted to anything except showing their friends and then throwing it in the trash, where it was found by a middle schooler and then given to a faculty member, who then showed it to the upper school administration. It was NOT a mal intended letter and obviously a dumb and idiotic joke among dumber friends.
The Bush School is NOT racist. Truman GROSSLY misrepresented the school. The administration certainly isn’t, and neither are the students. While there are fewer minorities in the school than whites, it certainly isn’t because the school is racist. In fact the school, like most private schools in the area TRIES to get more students of colors and different socio economic backgrounds. If you want to see racist, see the segregation at garfield, whether its intended or not.
This is not to mention the schools outstanding attempt to teach about white privilege and earned and unearned advantage. The school regularly holds conversations and discussions about privilege and how the students and the school can work to decrease the privilege barriers.
Please keep in mind that the “Real Rich Boys Club” was actually created to make fun of a stupid SAAS group that was called “The Rich Boys Club”. Also they NEVER bought off the school, they NEVER were treated better because of their socio-economic status. That is simply ridiculous, and Truman has no proof of the allegation.
Protip, stranger… talk to current students if you want to find out whats going on. Quit being yellow journalists, quit being disgusting excuses for writers, you’re not getting the full story and you know it. TALK TO CURRENT STUDENTS, AGAIN.
Wow. Everyone commenting on these posts and stories really have their heads placed firmly up their asses. It’s hilarious!
@14, before you go making assumptions about our asses, i think you should watch out for yours. You seem to be talking from it.
.
Sorry, the club wasn’t called the “Rich White Guys Crew”, it was called the “Really Rich Guys Crew”… no mention of race in there. And students of Bush aren’t racist at all. Unless something has drastically changed from 2008-2011, we are the same, open school we’ve always been. One stupid senior making a terrible joke shouldn’t account for us all.
As a Bush school student this is more offensive to me than the actual letter was. I can’t believe all of these accusations of Bush from people who:
1. Don’t know the first thing about the environment
2. Don’t hear both sides of the story
3. Make generalizations of “The Administration” and “The student body”
We may not be the most diverse school, but its not like its a school full of rich white kids.
I’m a minority at the school and although last year the situation wasn’t handled well we are taking steps to correct it so it will never happen again. Get your facts straight before you start to judge someone or something. Because if you do you’re basically doing the same thing the student who wrote the letter did, jumping to conclusions about a group of people.
I am a student at the Bush upper school, and have been at Bush since middle school. I am on 99% financial aid, and am a student of color, so I do not have the privileges of my rich, white, male counterparts. However, these differences have not prevented me from fitting in or being comfortable in the Bush environment. Never once in my many years here have I been openly attacked for my race. Sure, there have microaggressions here and there but Bush is not perfect, just like every other school on the planet. It sickens me to hear the Stranger post these untruths about this school and dirtying our name to the community. Bush has gone out of its way to make my experience here comparable to other students, despite the large financial gap. I suggest you all seek out both sides of the story before formulating opinions, and I suggest The Stranger to look into more legitimate methods of journalism, because this is just disgusting.
Also, Truman, you were fired, get over it and stop trying to have your revenge. We are a strong community, and through open forums and discussions we will get through this ruckus you have stirred up.
Also: I have NEVER heard someone use the N word in casual conversation at The Bush School.
I am a current student of the Bush School, and I am really upset with the Stranger. Yes, the letter in question was offensive and rude. But the Stranger has blown this letter COMPLETELY out of proportion. ONE stupid joke from ONE stupid senior at the Bush School DOES NOT reflect the views of the entire community. To come out and blatantly call our school racist is not only unfair, it’s simply stupid. You, Mr. Kiley, should not be basing your “journalism” on one person’s views. Many of his facts are incorrect, and many of the facts you repeated in your articles are incorrect. We are proud of our school and I hate to see it shown as racist, classist, sexist, homophobic…
@3/4
Yes, every journalist, news organization and person brings bias to their writing/publishing. However, any good journalist tries to mitigate those biases by, in this case say, quoting students who didn’t feel the school was racist or mentioning his friendship with Truman, which might (note the word “might” not “will”) skew his story. I applaud the stranger for looking for different sorts of stories and perspectives than the Seattle Times or KUOW news. But I don’t applaud Kiley’s choice to withhold relevant facts and perspectives in this story.
As a recent Bush School Alum and a friend of both the “RRBC” and Truman, I’d like to say that there is a story here, in that the Bush School (and presumably other private high schools) community and faculty could do a much better job teaching and embodying the subtleties (and not so subtleties) of tolerance. However, notably missing from the story were many of the facts, facts that clearly exonerated the Bush School administration from at least some of the guilt implied in Kiley’s article.
It’s really disappointing, Kiley, that you fail to practice basic journalistic ethics in this story. Especially because Truman’s video is all about the abomination that is bad ethics.
If it’s true that Truman and the author are friends, then the editors should have prefaced the article with some disclosure. To say nothing lacks integrity and professionalism. And for the record, I have no ties to the school or the people involved in this story.
The real racism here is that Truman, a white guy who never did anything for anyone besides himself, is duping everyone over an issue he’s using to cover up his true motives. He’s a liar and Brendan’s a tool. His story is changing daily, but he is one arrogant, angry white guy who doesn’t really care about racism at all. He cares about revenge, which is really scary. An example: in his video, Truman asks everyone to tell him their stories. Why? Pray tell, fired Messiah, why do you care? Go fight racism if that’s your calling. Go do something.
This “article” just proves that calling the Stranger a legitimate news source is like calling Fox News fair and balanced.
This article, and the story in general, shouldn’t be taken seriously. Truman could be described by a laundry list of colorful adjectives, but simply, he is a bad person. Nothing he says should be taken as anything more than a pathetic man with anger problems trying to paint himself as a martyr.
I’m sure that this has been said multiple times, but this article is extremely biased. Lets look into Truman’s background as a teacher; Truman has run into many controversial incidents as a teacher not only at Bush, but also other schools that he has taught at. His past isn’t perfect just like Bush’s past is not. Also, it was not mentioned that Truman was asked to resign at the end of the year because of his questionable behavior. Furthermore, Jack McHenry did look into how suspending “Wallace”would affect his chances of getting into the colleges he had applied to and Jack did so with good reason. Yes, the letter was pejorative, deplorable, and not the least bit acceptable, but does “Wallace” deserve a punishment that could harm his future? I would also like to mention that there was no donation to the school that exempted him from further repercussions. The school could have handled it better, definitely. But the whole school should not be taking the blame for a couple persons actions. It was a mistake, we move on and we learn from it. And The Bush School has.
Just to be fair, while I don’t condone the video at all, nor do I condone this series of articles (I think it was extremely poor judgment to use this story as a tool), I don’t think Truman is a “bad” person.
He has stirred up a lot of rumors (perhaps facts) and paranoia in terms of both his history and his motives. But with that said, I actually feel concerned for Truman. His actions may be taking a stab at The Bush School, but he’ll have issues of his own in response to this broadcast.
The media has great affects; I think we’ve all learned that. And while harsh feelings have arisen, I think it’s important to realize that Truman is a fellow human being. Just like Wallace, he makes mistakes.
So, Bush School, let’s set an example some people can follow. Let’s not sink so low as to insult this paper repeatedly, or insult Truman.
Let’s right the wrongs, correct the incorrect facts, then leave. We have nothing more to do here, if that is not enough.
A small inconsistency in the story: 9/17/83 was a Saturday, not a Friday. The 9/17/83 date is also mentioned in stories about Vera’s grandmother’s death (http://werc.wi.gov/selected_press_releas…), so it seems to be the day that’s wrong, not the date. In the video he mentioned it was a Friday and that she left school in middle of the school day; I’m not sure that makes sense if it was 9/17/83. Heartbreaking regardless.
I almost fell out of my chair when this link hit my inbox this evening. It takes brass balls to make a video titled “The Truth About….” while using a fake name. This guy is not named Truman Buffett. He’s Carl Roger Buffett and went by Carl until fairly recently. Also, of note: Carl claims on his facebook page to be a graduate of Oberlin 1995. Not true. He dropped out and didn’t get his degree until May 1998 and he implies that he was a double major in math and theatre. No. Just math. No theatre degree. Also, I noted this evening that he’s listed his employment on his facebook page and that he’s been employed at three Seattle area schools in four and a half years. No employment lasted longer than about 24 months. That’s an interesting pattern, don’t you think? As an employer, that is the kind of pattern that makes me really look for red flags.
I have no idea about this situation with the school and the letter (seems pretty offensive to me) but I can tell you that Carl has been an aggressive, ego driven, attention seeker every since I have known him, which is a really long time. He has a charming, let’s go grab a beer, side but when he gets pissed off, he’s volatile and unstable. Whatever the situation here, you should be extremely careful in judging the situation without hearing both sides because Carl is not a reliable source.
I find this story quite interesting. There is a style of journalism and discourse that has been perfected by FOX news in which part of a story is told and often in such a way as to skew the truth. Since none of us know the “truth” we either keep an open mind or draw conclusions and make judgments on insufficient information. We like to draw conclusions as humans–it makes us feel in control but it closes the mind.
A question that could be asked is who benefits from the telling of this story. Well, The Bush School might benefit if only for the reason that some think that all news is good news. Perhaps it opens a discourse at the school that is quite different from FOX news (and the Stranger.) However, if it deters smart, diligent students of color from applying then it hurts the school because that is the best way to learn about others–by working and playing with them. Perhaps Truman didn’t think about that.
I have to consider that Truman must have thought he would benefit by the telling of this story. He is cast in a heroic role. However, I fear that will not be the case.
if you look up truman buffet on facebook, it lists his current job as “guardian angel in exile” at the bush school.
Wait… Mr. Kiley posted this story on his blog three days ago, and immediately received dozens of responses telling him in detail about its inaccuracies and problems with the reliability of his source – and what was his response? Run the story anyway, gloss over any specific issues that were raised, and ignore the bigger question of whether or not his single source has any credibility whatsoever in this matter.
Bravo.
It’s all Bush’s fault.
Oh wait, wrong context.
@35: You were right the first time.
Truman show was more interesting them all this nonsense. This Truman is a little bit on the sick side.
This is a story that is ostensibly about racial and socioeconomic tensions at the Bush School, which is an issue that is hardly unique to that institution. But if you watch the video and read this article and its comments, this is primarily about Truman Buffett, Truman Buffett, Truman Buffett. Whether by celebrating his outspoken heroism or making ad hominem attacks on the guy, we are complicit with Truman in staging a weird narcissistic circus that has zero to do the systemic cultural issues that we all grapple with.
@38, when you are only given one side of a story, and lacking information necessary to truly judge the merits of the argument, it is relevant and appropriate to question the credibility of the source. In this case, I think that credibility is highly in question.
Everyone can call Truman’s motives into question all they want. Maybe he does have an agenda, maybe not. What you can’t do is say that his descriptions of Jack McHenry’s actions sound out of character for Jack. This sounds exactly like the Jack McHenry I know.
It’s hilarious all the teachers from Bush are on here commenting like they’re students and concerned community members.
If there is only 1 black and 1 hispanic kid at the school, how is the diversity director doing their job? What’s the point of having an anti-racism workshop for a bunch of white kids? The way out of intolerance is access.
Those numbers are completely inaccurate for # of minorities at the school (or any other Seattle private school, where all numbers are similar, and easily accessible in various publications). As with the rest of it, the reporter didn’t lift a lazy finger to research, did he? There IS a minority attrition problem- that’s why a diversity director was hired. It slowly improves. As other comment posters have said, no private school is doing more that Bush to work on this. That would have made an intersting article. This article, on the other hand, is a reporter going for number of hits- and the chance for print publication- rather than accurate reporting. He belongs at the National Inquirer. And looking at that creepy video and seeing female students from the school post that he made them feel uncomfortable and invited them to dinner is just skin crawling disgusting.
A note to Bush School students who may be reading this. There are many things to learn from watching this issue play out, and I would like to point out three of them.
1. Read with a critical eye. As someone who has experience with the events described, you may be wondering how the published pieces can be so misleading and inaccurate. As you develop expertise in your life in various subject matters, you will find that media renderings of those subjects often convey half truths or distort the picture. Recognize that this distortion is everywhere and read critically.
2. You are the master of your fate. Watching a skilled math teacher implode personally and professionally in this way is painful to see but is a cautionary tale. If you lack self-mastery and cannot control your anger and romantic impulses, book learning will only take you so far. Self mastery comes through accepting all our impulses but then choosing how to act in the world.
3. In matters of racism and privilege, outcome is more important than intention. You have learned this or will be learning this in your time at the Bush School, but it is easy to forget. Here we see a hopefully well-intentioned effort by an ex-teacher to shed light on an example of racism, but what has happened instead is that racist letter is now spread out to 100x more people than it had been previously. The net outcome has reinforced negative stereotypes and slowed down the work of anti-racism.
I would just like to point something out at this juncture–as vitriolic as the criticisms on this thread are, almost nobody is arguing with the relevant facts and assertions: the letter, the administration’s decision to forgo punishing the boy because they wanted to shield his behavior from a future college, and the accusation that the children of wealthy donors get more leeway from the administration than the other kids.
The former teacher’s personal life is not relevant. The facts above (which, again, almost nobody is disputing) are.
So fight about whether or not you’d invite Truman Buffett to your birthday party all you want–but that’s a distraction from the much more serious issues at hand.
DJ Johnson is not a reliable source. There were other African Americans in his graduating class and in all classes below him, to claim that he was the “only African American in the high school” is ridiculous.
Also I was not surprised at all that he was quick to say negative things about the “crew” due to the fact that while he was a senior he had a sexual relationship with a freshman (which later led to a restraining order) and the “crew” were some of the brave guys who stood up to him about it.
Once again Brendan Kiley, please check your sources.
Good luck finding a job, Truman. You’re clearly a moron. Maybe if Bush finally gets rid of Jack McHenry the two of you can start a consulting company together. I think the niche would be teaching short bald men how to get into pissing contests with high schoolers.
Brendan – that is not true at all. As the administration makes very clear (and you fail to represent in this article or any of your multiple blog posts), there was no conclusive evidence that “Wallace” was the author of the letter addressed to him. The administration suspected him, and a couple of his close friends, but they had no proof. In the absence of clear knowledge, they decided not to make “Wallace” into a scapegoat.
Truman’s video is absolutely incorrect when he says that “Wallace” owned up to writing the letter. No one ever stepped forward as the letter’s author.
Put yourself into Jack McHenry’s shoes. Would you jeopardize a student’s college admission over rumors and hearsay? Jack, and the administration as a whole, should not be vilified simply because they demanded a reasonable standard of evidence.
Omitting these facts, among other significant pieces of information, is nothing short of intellectually dishonest.
Brendan – that is not true at all. As the administration makes very clear (and you fail to represent in this article or any of your multiple blog posts), there was no conclusive evidence that “Wallace” was the author of the letter addressed to him. The administration suspected him, and a couple of his close friends, but they had no proof. In the absence of clear knowledge, they decided not to make “Wallace” into a scapegoat.
Truman’s video is absolutely incorrect when he says that “Wallace” owned up to writing the letter. No one ever stepped forward as the letter’s author.
Put yourself into Jack McHenry’s shoes. Would you jeopardize a student’s college admission over rumors and hearsay? Jack, and the administration as a whole, should not be vilified simply because they demanded a reasonable standard of evidence.
Omitting these facts, among other significant pieces of information, is nothing short of intellectually dishonest.
Oh Brendan, you shouldn’t be wading in to this. The facts that you defend are actually opinions. And they happen to be opinions from a personal friend of yours who’s personal life is relevant because it speaks to the reliability of his commentary. If you don’t believe this, than you must not believe in our entire system of justice in this country.
The only comment above that is accurate is that the are accusations that children of wealthy donors get more leeway. The rest is purely what you rely on from your personal friend Mr. Truman who lives under an alias and does not comment on his verbal and physical abuse of students at more than one school where he has taught (Bush isn’t the first place where Carl had issues with students).
The fact that you try to defend your lack of reporting simply tells me that this is a pure opinion piece. Nobody is going to deny there is an issue of race in this world, country, state, city and school. Nobody at Bush denies there are only a small number of minorities at the school.
But the bigger issue isn’t what you claim it to be in #44. The bigger issue is that there is actually a story here that you refused to report. You have three sources in your story, all back up and defend your knee jerk reaction of a post over the weekend. Could you not find a single other source? Or did these three represent the many people you interviewed.
NO the real issue at hand here is the overarching issue of race in our community, and the fact that stories like yours, and writers like you do no good to add any clarity to any real issues facing all of us.
Brendan, please get out there and do some work for your stories. As a journalist who has been at this for decades now, it makes me sad that I have to explain to people that I am not one of “those” kind of journalists. The kind that you give a bad name by not actually reporting.
Woops, Sorry for the double post.
I have more to say on this issue, Brendan, but I’m as yet unconvinced that you care about reporting the facts accurately.