As the parent of an “asshat” (my son is a member of the Student Union as well as the Youth Commission), I am deeply offended by Northampton High School Principal Lori Vaillancourt’s pejorative characterization of my son (and many other students) for learning how to voice their thoughts and feelings about a policy. (“Report: Sharp divides over math move,” March 12).
Isn’t high school the training ground for activism? Wouldn’t somebody wanting to be a principal understand that that is a large piece of what happens in high school education? Ms. Vaillancourt told the Gazette, “This type of informal communication between colleagues can be taken out of context and can be misunderstood.”
If this is the type of communication taking place informally on publicly available records, I can’t imagine what is being communicated in the bulk of the discussions which did not take place through publicly available written records. I understand she gave an apology for her profoundly inappropriate depiction of my son and the other students learning how to have a say in their world.
I have to believe that Ms. Vaillancourt gave an empty apology as it comes from a woman who followed up her “asshat” comment with the suggestion that turning the concept of equity into a buzzword in order to manipulate these young adults on the Student Union would be an appropriate suggestion.
She also spoke up in a completely hypocritical, manipulative statement to those present in the School Committee meeting where member Mr. Michael Stein struggled to find appropriate language for a sensitive topic he was trying to address (he has since genuinely apologized from what I read). Ms. Vaillancourt told him she “cannot tolerate that type of depiction of our learners and our students.” Seriously? “Asshats?”
Rather than simply call out Ms. Vaillancourt for clearly being burned out (“frustrated,” as she puts it) and unable to see she needs to get out of her position of influence before causing any more esteem problems in our youth, I’d like to call her in to utilizing insight-oriented self-reflection practices to come to that realization on her own.
Kipp Armstrong
Florence