By Joe C. Hopkins

This past week the Star News (Saturday September 25, 2004) reported that Irene Quinones the principal of McKinley School, allegedly lied on evaluations of a group of teachers, ending some of their careers, and the state recommends that she be suspended, not fired, for thirty days. Instead, Pasadena Unified Schools commutes the punishment to 15 days and she will return to work. The Superintendent of Schools touts her as an "outstanding educator, the consummate professional" and believes that the punishment doesn’t fit the crime.

She is an educator responsible for the shaping the minds of children in the schools and she is a liar. She should be fired. She acted dishonestly and ended the career of professionals by giving them false evaluations. She should be fired. By the way, according to the article she also was charged with the same allegation at her previous job in Hacienda Heights.

Maybe Quinones isn’t being fired because the superintendent identifies with her when he reflects on his own career, having been fired for dishonesty himself in the past. But wait, didn’t he claim to have been a justice fighter in the spirit of Dr. King? Doesn’t he profess now to be a preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ where justice and truth reign supreme? Well, why isn’t Quinones being fired or demoted as an example to the children she is responsible for educating? Maybe the false evaluations were all in the spirit re-segregating the schools as part of the dishonorable goal of reaching the mountaintop. Since when is dishonesty an admirable quality, except in a Machiavellian society? Of course the ultimate question for me is would she have been fired if she was Black?

Oliver North sold drugs to raise money for the Contras. He was a Republican and so it was Ok, because it was for their greater good. George Bush lied about his record in the National Guard. The Republicans who tried to bury Bill Clinton for lying about a sexual tryst are saying it doesn’t matter about Bush because the document that helped to expose the lie was faulty. Vice President Cheney in support of his white Aparthied friends in South Africa voted to keep Nelson Mandela in prison because in Cheney’s lying words, "Mandela was a terrorist."

Closer to home the chief of security for the Los Angeles Police Department (a white man) got on a commercial plane with a loaded pistol in his carry on luggage. Chief Bratton indicates it was an "honest mistake" and so he is to keep his job. Former Pasadena Police Chief Jerry Oliver got on a plane with an unloaded gun in his luggage from Detroit, but he was fired within the week. He is Black.

The dishonesty of the school district should again remind the Black community that they need to become vigilant in watching what is going on in the schools. They have not, thus far. We need to question things like why is it that Black kids are at the bottom of the pile when it comes to filling the needs of students? And then we need to ask what are we doing about extricating our children from the bottom? We know that lack of reading and writing skills ultimately leads to crime, prison, and a downward cycle in the quality of life for the Black community.

It is no longer enough to have sports programs and non-educational programs for our kids. We need to integrate educational programs into everything to begin to fill the gap that the public schools refuse to fill. More educators concerned about the welfare of the Black community, and ultimately the whole community, need to use their skills to help form and teach at Saturday schools in the community. Those who are retired or unemployed need to look at starting more private schools and charter schools. Do something because the quality of life in an integrated society depends on everybody doing a part. Either the educators and parents must do a better job or the police and the Prison system will do the job, after we are all terrorized and made victims by people who can’t get a job because they never learned to read, write or reason.

It is encouraging to note that the plans for the Black Male Forum’s Black Student Enrichment program is still alive, although more volunteers are needed. Contact Patricia Huff through the Journal (626-798-3972) or attend their meetings on Fridays at Robinson Park at 10:00 a.m. The Mustangs on the Move program is another exciting effort with classes ranging of subjects including Career Enrichment, Preparing for College, and New Life, a one on one program for juvenile offenders that works to help with their academics, tutoring, career and job training. Mustangs on the move also has programs involving scouting, training in the culinary arts (cooking) as a profession, male mentoring, sewing and clothes making, as well as music and magazine production. Contact Bernard Donohue at the Flintridge Foundation for more information at (626) 744-9256, ext 108.

The whole idea of alternative educational opportunities is catching on in other places. The Pasadena Links will begin the 9th year of their Saturday School program on October 2, 2004, for students in grades K-3. The Links may be contacted at 626-791-7886. The NAACP Oxnard Branch has continues with its Saturday School program for students for grades K-12. For more information call Lekishia Moffett at (818)-585-7808 or Darlene Fowlks (805)- 584-3223. Maybe that is the new direction for all NAACP Branches. Why not? When the public schools start promoting dishonest principals to lead our kids, it’s time to try something different to extricate our children from schools that refuse to educate them.