SUPER MONTOYA: THE TAIL CANNOT WAG THE DOG AT VETERANS H.S., CHEEZMOSOS OR NOT

By Juan Montoya

In the brouhaha that erupted over the suspension with pay of Veterans Memorial High School principal Acacia Ameel while the Brownsville Independent School District administration investigates the events surrounding the announcements of an incetive to make Veterans a magnet school for science technology and medical training, a few things have been overlooked.

The way things usually work in a normal school school district goes something like this: The administration studies an issue, and makes its recommendations to the school board. The board either follows the recommendations or suggests changes. The policy adopted at the end of the process is then implemented.
Now, if you are a principal at a school that will be affected by the policy, you can either agree or disagree, but you cannot ignore or change the policy on your own. In other words, the inmates cannot run the asylum.
In the case of suspended principal Ameel, it appears that she was resisting the changes suggested by the administration and refusing to adopt the new policies. Instead, there is some evidence that she actively took part in orchestrating the protest to resist the changes envisioned for Veterans.
She, in fact, considered it, "her" school.
Well, that may have been the way things were done in the past, but under the new crew at the BISD Glass Palace, things are done very differently. The tail does not wag the dog. Either Fido complies with the command, or he gets no treat.
There are many questions being asked of how things were running there. Of particular concern was the vocational-technical welding program that has caught the eye of the new super. It seems that while the $.5 million welding building where the classes are taught are void of welding equipment. Not only that, but there is no certified instructor to teach the kiddies out there the welding trade.
This has been going on not for a month or two, but for the last year.
(A reader noww tells us that the program was open for juniors and seniors only and that only Freshmen and shophmores were admitted at the school. He further saysa that the past administration under Brett Springston) ran out of money before they could buy the welding equipment.)
How could you have a welding class without equipment or instructors? Those are a few of the questions that the administration is looking for answers to.
The other, more pressing questions are just to what degree the Veterans principal was involved in orchestrating the students and parent protest when the board members showed up to explain the new policies? If it was merely to encourage the students to exercise their constitutional rights, no one can blame them for being indignant about the suspension of their principal.
But when they are encouraged to hiss and boo the board members when they tried to explain the new policies, that is over the top. After all, the voters of this district elected them to represent them to make changes and improvements in the educational system they pay with their property taxes.
To allow students or egg them on to subject them to this level of disrespect is not doing them a favor or inculcating in them the civility necessary to reach a mature adulthood.
And while we're at it, who called the local veterans at the Veterans of Foreign Wars post to spread the vile canard that the board was considering changing the name of the high school?
We spoke toVFW Commander Luis Lucio and public relations representative Al Senteno and they told us that they were unaware of the conflict brewing out at the school.
"We were just presenting the colors," Senteno said. "We do that all the time. We had no idea that anyone was thinking of changing the name. We didn't know what was going on. We did not go out there for that."
However, some people who attended the meeting have told us that Lucio did speak out against the alleged name changing as a sign of disrespect to local veterans.
Someone out at Veterans H.S. surely knows who called them to tell them the name change was in the air.
Using people who have served their country to buttress your protest by telling them a lie is the crassest kind of disrespect one can show to these men and women. And someone out at the school also knows who organized the "spontaneous" protest.
In time, we're sure, the truth will out.