This week's column wasn't supposed to be about the situation with Phyllis Roberts.

I thought last week's would be sufficient. But televised comments by a school board member have forced a second edition.

Roberts is the North Webster Elementary School teacher who is being asked to retiring after 31 years of service.

She is retiring because of a racial stereotype she uttered in her third-grade classroom.

Earlier this week, after reading accounts of the incident in our newspaper, Wawasee School Board member Mike Kern was moved to call our reporter, Deb McAuliffe.

He characterized her work as a fair and mostly accurate account of the events.

He said he did, however, take issue with the quote of what Roberts had said in her classroom.

The quote, which was read to me over the phone by an unofficial source, was "some blacks treasure fancy clothes and nice cars over houses."

Kern said the word "some" shouldn't have been in there. He said the quote was "blacks treasure fancy clothes and nice cars over houses."

Kern told McAuliffe that the addition of the word "some" made a difference.

She agreed, and offered to run a correction. But Kern said that would not be necessary.

McAuliffe told me that the conversation was very polite and cordial.

Imagine McAuliffe's surprise as she watched a South Bend TV station's coverage of the Roberts story.

On TV, as the camera focused on the nameplate of this newspaper, Mike Kern was quoted as saying our coverage was "not even close to the truth."

As I said in last week's column, what Roberts said in class was read to me over the telephone by an unofficial source.

I later received copies of written statements by the person who reported Roberts to the principal and by Roberts herself.

Kern is correct. The word "some" does not appear. Consider this the correction for that error.

Here is the exact sentence as it appears in Roberts' statement: "I talked about how their culture is still a little different than ours in that they treasure nice clothing and fancy cars over housing."

Roberts disputes some portions of her accuser's statement. The sentence above is the racial stereotype that Roberts' admits relating to her class.

It's funny how TV changes people, isn't it?

Take school board member Kern. On Monday, he says our report is fair and mostly accurate.

Roll the cameras on Wednesday and he says it's not even close to the truth.

I spoke to Kern about this. He said he was only referring to Roberts' quote. That the TV station made the generalization about our coverage. Even so, I don't think the addition of the word "some" warrants us a "not even close to the truth" rating by a school board member.

Kern apologized to me for his comment to the TV news station.

Apology accepted.

Kern completely disagreed with my column last week. I hope he isn't confusing my opinion with our news coverage.

My opinion remains the same. Roberts' introduction of a racial stereotype into the classroom was wrong. Any racial stereotyping in any context is wrong.

She should be held accountable. She should suffer some consequence. But asking her to retire is too harsh a penalty.

An example:

I was watching South Bend TV news the other night. There was a story about a teacher who was accused of battery.

The teacher went to court and was convicted of battery against a student.

The teacher was suspended for the remainder of the year without pay. She will teach again next year.

Our coverage of the Roberts story was as accurate and truthful as it could be, based on the information provided to us.

But Kern told me there is much more to the story. So much more, in fact, that if I heard it all I would change my mind about Roberts.

Of course he wouldn't tell me what that "more" is.

And that is precisely the problem when it comes to these kinds of issues.

On the one hand, school officials - board members, superintendents - want to do the right thing. And they want the support of the community.

Of course no one in the community wants them to do the wrong thing.

But on the other hand, they operate under this veil of secrecy when it comes to personnel matters.

Indiana law allows school boards to meet in executive session when it comes to matters of personnel, pending litigation or transfer of real property.

I understand the reasoning behind that. Not every complaint about a teacher has merit. It gives the school a chance to sort things out before the public hears about it.

But in cases where the community is polarized, I think it would be a good idea for school officials to put the information out there.

But that never happens. The community has to muddle along on rumor and innuendo. And reporters and editors have to either ignore the story or print a watered down version that doesn't really say anything.

I think school board members and superintendents need to remember who's paying the bills.

School corporation patrons need to know what's going on, and school board members need to listen to what the community has to say.

If Kern is concerned that the media is "not even close to the truth," maybe he ought to let us in on what the truth is. [[In-content Ad]]