COMMERCIAL EDITORIAL -- CHAPEL DISTRICT RIFT LESSENING? -- THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2006

We had hopes the controversy surrounding the Watson Chapel School District’s revised dress code might lessen with an exchange of opinions at Monday night’s special school board session. Talking out differences frequently helps bridge the gaps.

The words of Sandra Boone, the board’s newly-elected president, were encouraging. “We don’t want to fight,” she told an audience of about 75 patrons. “We want to work with you and work for you.”

“Maybe we have gone a little overboard on a few things,” conceded Donnie Hartsfield, the board’s new vice president.

“One of our biggest concerns is being consistent with this policy,” added Director Danny Holcomb. “We apologize for any inconveniences.”

Comments from the school board, often the target of verbal broadsides in recent weeks, were encouraging.

Superintendent Danny Knight, who has drawn the ire of parents and students alike, admitted “we are a long way from being perfect.”

Knight and several board members acknowledged “mistakes” have been made over the uniform policy and said they’re willing to “help correct them.”

Boone had to step in and stop one heated exchange between Knight and Wendy Crow, a founder and leader in the Fighting Education-Depriving Uniform Policies (FED UP) group that has actively opposed the uniform policy and its enforcement.

Then the American Civil Liberties Union made good on its promise to sue the Watson Chapel district over the suspension of several students last week who protested the district’s uniform policies by wearing black armbands.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court at Little Rock on Tuesday, maintains the district violated the free speech rights of students and asked the court to prohibit the district from suspending students for wearing armbands.

The U.S. Supreme Court in a 1969 case held the First Amendment gives students the right to wear armbands on school property.

Frequently, people who tend to disagree with each other have fewer differences and more in common than they might be initially willing to admit.

Crow is opposed to the district’s dress code. She’s pointed, passionate, stubborn and focused.

Knight is just as pointed, passionate, stubborn and focused about education.

Knight and the board have been at odds with many parents and students over the district’s dress code. The dissonance is probably rooted in what some consider to be inconsistent definition and unfair enforcement.

Both sides seemed to seek an avenue of compromise Monday night, but then things got ugly again, and for no apparent reason.

Boone is to be commended for quieting the verbal banter and restoring order. While she may be a small woman in stature, she has already shown that she’s quite capable of silencing thunder.

The late Earl Chadick strategically placed a sign just outside his office while serving as Jefferson County judge. Beneath a Bible verse along the top of the homemade, wooden placard was the message, “Come let us reason together.”

Chadick was educated more through life experiences than in classrooms.

As county judge, Chadick had a secret that produced favorable results.

“If you can control your self-pride, you can learn a lot and become a better person by working with your critics,” Chadick explained. Criticism eventually transforms into an information exchange when hardheaded adversaries in pursuit of contrasting triumphs join forces in aiming at a shared, positive objective, a wise person once observed.

Whatever happens with the settling of the dust from the dress code tumult and the recent armband protest, both sides should commit themselves to working through the challenge by allowing reason to rule and agreeing to move forward together for everyone’s best interests.

Imagine what a powerful lesson that could be for the Watson Chapel students.