People are pretty good at discerning hypocrisy and inconsistency, especially in elected officials, which cultivates their distrust and cynicism. The bungled handling of the Ooltewah High School basketball rape investigation – and the vehement public reaction to it – has provided a textbook lesson on what not to do.
To his credit, on Sunday, Jonathan Welch, chairman of the Hamilton County Board of Education, acknowledged, appropriately, the missteps that have plagued the board and administration since three Ooltewah High basketball players were charged with aggravated rape and aggravated assault in connection with a Dec. 22 brutal attack against a freshman teammate in Gatlinburg.
“I came up short and I apologize. I will do better,” Welch wrote in a statement.
Welch came up short when he and the board listened solely to those who viewed this horrific episode as a legal matter to manage rather than acknowledging a 15-year-old was harmed on a taxpayer-supported trip while under the supposed supervision of taxpayer-funded personnel representing a taxpayer-funded institution.
Silence from the board and administration – in the absence of a broad gag order – was the wrong approach.