The Following Is A Bubbaworld Editorial/Opinion
If one were to travel to Muskogee, Oklahoma and take a popularity vote among the students, teachers and parents of Hilldale School District, beyond any doubt the most popular person would be former Hilldale High School Principal Dewayne Pemberton.
The most unpopular persons would likely be Hilldale Schools Superintendent D B Merrill, school board members Carl Frazier, Eldon Schoonover and Terri Breedlove and former Assistant Principal (soon to be anointed Principal) Darren Riddle.
The reason for Mr. Pemberton's popularity is simple. The students, the teachers and the parents of the district love and respect him. The reason for the unpopularity of the others is that they combined to fire Dewayne Pemberton in what can only be considered an outbreak of lunacy.
The reason for his firing? Pemberton refused to force a teacher/coach to drive a school bus owing to the fact that she felt she was not qualified to drive a school bus and would endanger any children riding on any bus she drove.
Dewayne Pemberton, who in his eighteen years as Principal of Hilldale High School had only missed one school day, is very likely the most respected and loved high school principal in Oklahoma.
To hear the students, teachers, parents and graduates tell it, Dewayne Pemberton, while he doesn't walk on water, does know where all the rocks are located and has for many years been the steady hand, watchful eye and kind heart guiding thousands of kids across the troubled waters of high school.
And also to hear the students, teachers, parents and graduates tell it they have a BIG bone to pick with Superintendent D B Merrill and the three school board members; Carl Frazier, Eldon Schoonover and Terri Breedlove, who voted to fire Dewayne Pemberton.
After voting at 3 a.m. on a Saturday morning to fire Pemberton, the anti-Pemberton faction possibly fearful of being tared, feathered and ran out of town on a rail were escorted from the meeting hall to their vehicles by sheriff's deputies, as hundreds of spectators including students, teachers and parents erupted into boos and protests of the school board's action.
The Hilldale Schools Fiasco is not over. It is only starting and before it is all said and done there will likely be many more protests against a school superintendent and school board that refuses to carry out the wishes of the vast majority of the students, teachers, parents and voters of that district.
That they will be figuratively tared, feathered and run out of town on a rail is likely as soon as Hilldale School District voters get the opportunity to oust the unpopular board members, one at a time, as is done in annual school board elections in Oklahoma.
Likewise, that they should be ousted is apparent. No elected official that ignores the wishes of the electorate deserves to hold any public office and should be shunned and voted from office at the earliest opportunity.
Unfortunately for the students of Hilldale High School, it will take years to undo the damage created by Carl Frazier, Eldon Schoonover and Terri Breedlove during the dark of night, early on the morning of March 31, 2007.
For that Frazier, Schoonover and Breedlove should be ashamed, very ashamed...
