Mob rule forces school closures

Teachers lost my respect, when their mob-rule tactics forced closure of Richland 2, Richland 1, Lexington 5 and many other schools in South Carolina, so that the grown-up kiddies could march in Columbia.

The gross irresponsibility of the teachers and the weak-kneed management of school districts is resulting in huge financial losses for school districts, income losses for parents and for hourly staff of school districts, and major and unnecessary inconvenience of parents, not to mention the loss of an important school day and lesson for students.

What's the lesson for students? Strike, if you want something you are not getting. Mob rule works (maybe).

Let's see how that works for them, once they get to the workplace. When an employee tells a normal employer that he is taking a day off, the employer examines the business' workload and determines whether it can do without the employee that day.

That isn't what happened today. SC for Ed stirred up teachers statewide and pointed them at the S.C. Capitol. So teachers put in for a day of personal leave, which is probably negotiated as a paid day off in the teacher's employment contract. Those "leave" days are commonly thought of as necessary for medical appointments and other important tasks that cannot be completed outside of normal working hours.

What a novel "coincidence" that hundreds (thousands?) of teachers would need a day of leave on May 1!

As soon as the May 1 march was announced, school districts and superintendents should have addressed how to handle it. The first step should have been to announce a limit on the number of personal-leave days that would be available at each school.

They didn't do that, and they got caught with their pants sagging down to their knees. And it was too late to pull them up.

The loud expressions of sympathy for the teachers' cause at last night's Richland 2 School Board meeting was a joke. I thought about laughing out loud and rolling on the floor while holding my sides, as one trustee (but not all) spoke more and more loudly in favor of the teachers.

The trustees needed to be smacked on their backsides and reminded that they are elected executives of a multi-million dollar business - the School District. They are responsible to voters, students, parents, and employees. To listen to some of them, you'd think they were union bosses.

This is why a school board should be composed of experienced business people capable of understanding the facts and factors of running a business, not bleeding-heart liberals following sheep over the cliff.