Who would want this job?

 Who would want this job?

Thomas Jefferson high schools in Virginia is one of top ranked high schools in the nation.  Many of the students compete for National Merit Scholarships.   This year 261 students at the school received a letter of commendation for this performance.   A letter of commendation does NOT include any monetary or scholarship award.  It is sort of a good job notification.

Recipients of letters of commendation are generally notified in September.  This year they were not notified until just before Thanksgiving break.  The Fairfax school district says it was human error.  NOT so, say a group of parents who are demanding that the principal and the school director of student services have their employment terminated because the parents allege the school officials “deliberately withheld the information” from the 261 students.   The parents have not indicated what they think the motivation might have been to “deliberately” delay notification.  They are consumed with the damage to what they believe is their children’s chances for college admission.   These are kids who are graduating from one of the best schools in the country.   The earned Merit Scholarship letters of Commendation so it is probably safe to assume they have pretty good grades.  The school guidance counselors have directly contacted the admission directors of EVERY school to which the seniors have applied.  NOT enough say the parents.  The parents are convinced that the error will cause “catastrophic” damage to their children’s chances for college admission and other scholarships.  School officials say that almost every senior received either an actual monetary scholarship or the letter of commendation.   Because very few students received neither the school did not make a publicity release in the interest of saving the feelings of the few students who received no award or scholarship.  Thomas Jefferson high school is a school where the majority of the students are children of color.  This year is the first time the announcement was delayed.  

The school district has done its best with a mea culpa.  They are investigating and will modify policy as needed.

The two major questions are qui bono, if the error was intentional?   And secondly,  would anyone want to commit his/her profession to a system that doesn’t come to your support when you have made a relatively harmless error.   My heart goes out to the students who must live under incredible parental pressure if their parents find a late issued letter as "devastating".  And then again, we wonder why folks don’t want leadership positions in the public schools?