Local NAACP calls for ouster of BLS headmaster

As some of you may know, I am a graduate of BLS. Our class, 1987, was the first with an African American class president, the first with an interracial prom king and queen, hell even the prom song was by Heatwave, an interracial band.

Our class president was a problem solver, a bridge builder in a class that was the first to be entirely under the needed yoke of court ordered desegregation from K1 to Senior Year and the still very fresh racial conflicts of the 70's and 80's.

Julius Babbitt, our class president died in 2005 from cancer after working in the Weld Administration. A few of us got together and started a scholarship that takes one kid from the school and places them into a state or city government internship for the summer to help them gain some real world experience. We give them a stipend to work over the summer. It is not much but is a real summer job that doesn't involve burgers or golf club portage.

I am not supposed to admit this but since we in the fund are all city kids (i.e. East Boston, Dot, Mattapan, Roslindale, not Back Bay or Beacon Hill raised), who only really got going once we got into the real world, we leaned towards those kids who were talented but not doing the isn't it great that I am building wells in Baku to build my resume for college.

The spirit of the internship was to keep people working together rather than not working together, as was done by Mr. Babbitt.

That is what is needed here. The Boston Office of the NAACP is looking for a victory to yell about, yet somehow I have never seen them try to address the need to help retain African Americans, especially African American boys at BLS and the other schools..

Many are forgetting here that the student involved was punished according to the letter of the law. Somehow people are calling for "extra" law to be applied. I also expect that going forward this kid can forget about any letters of recommendation from the staff. Punishment will go on in this person's life.

Calling for the Headmaster's head is an empty gesture. It solves nothing except for bloodlust. Lynne and the other staff work hard at their jobs, sending the talented kids of this city off to keep doing good things and making the city a better place. The Boston NAACP is looking for headlines, not actual progress.

The organization is free to take whatever positions its feels meets it goals. I don't agree with what they want but it's America folks. As an observer they have about the same impact on issues as sports radio callers do on player trades.

What's happening at BLS is a convergence of myriad important social justice ideas. That the discussion should begin at one of the city's best-know public schools seems fitting. If it brings residents and community groups together to seriously address issues of disparate access to high quality education - not to mention long-simmering racial tensions passed down through generations in the BPS - then I stand in solidarity with them. However, what I'm hearing and reading sounds more like scapegoating targeted solely at BLS's administration. The broader conversation in the Boston Public Schools deserves substantive input and leadership from Mayor Walsh's administration. The issues in play here go well beyond the city's exam schools but, thus far, I'm afraid calls for heads to roll may be drowning out those who would truly seize on a city-wide "teachable moment." I hope that the new Schools Superintendent and new(ish) Mayor will rise to the broader challenge with wisdom and civic leadership. If the city's official response is to throw Dr. Moony Teta "under the bus" my confidence in the Walsh administration's capacity to nurture the much-vaunted "New Boston" will be seriously undermined.