Posted on 08/07/2002 10:57:25 AM PDT by Rebelbase
An outspoken critic of Guilford County Schools Superintendent Terry Grier said he was surprised to hear someone called his office Monday wanting to know where he worked and the name of his boss.
The critic, John Graham, was even more surprised when he traced the anonymous call and learned who had just phoned: Superintendent Terry Grier.
Graham said Tuesday the workplace phone call was meant to intimidate him. Grier denies this, saying that he called Graham's office at the request of a Board of Education member. Grier declined to identify the board member, saying, "I'd rather not say."
"There was no ill intent" to the call, Grier said. "I didn't think the request was illegal, unethical or immoral."
The telephone call came a day after Graham sent an e-mail to county commissioners and other local parents that spoofed the popular "Austin Powers" films by casting Grier in the role of "Dr. Evil," Powers' arch-nemesis. Graham has helped lead a parents' group that has protested the district's decision to move a magnet program from Morehead Elementary.
According to Graham, a local stock broker, the receptionist at his firm got a telephone call shortly before 10 a.m. Monday asking if Graham worked there and who his immediate supervisor is. The unidentified male caller asked for the supervisor's e-mail address, which the receptionist declined to give, citing company policy. The caller then asked for the firm's mailing address and hung up after getting it.
The receptionist used the call return feature *69 (star-69) to trace the call. Graham dialed the number that came up and a female voice answered: "Superintendent's office." Graham hung up without asking to speak to Grier.
"I was stunned that the superintendent would not identify himself and (would) ask who my immediate supervisor was, especially since he doesn't have an account here," Graham said.
Grier said school board members routinely ask him to get similar information, such as a work number for a school's PTA president. In Monday's call, Grier said he asked for the name of Graham's company, but does not recall asking for the name or e-mail address of Graham's supervisor. Grier said he has not contacted Graham's boss and has no plans to do so.
"Am I going to talk to everybody's boss who's been critical of us?" Grier asked rhetorically.
Graham's latest e-mail came after Grier announced last week that the district would move nearly 600 Guilford County students with limited English skills to schools closer to their homes. These students had been assigned to other schools that offered special programs for students learning to speak English.
The move will shift 66 students to Morehead Elementary, which must add two trailer classrooms for these students. It angered Graham because school officials in January cited the lack of space as one reason for shifting most of the performing arts program to Peeler Elementary this fall.
Graham, whose two children attend Morehead, has since become a persistent critic of Grier. Graham helped form Truth in Education, a parents' watchdog group that supports public education but has been critical of some of the district's recent decisions. He also regularly sends e-mail messages that criticize Grier and school board members and, at times, has given some of them unflattering nicknames.
Graham said his e-mails, which he writes and sends from home, use satire of high-profile public figures to show "how ridiculous things have gotten." But Graham said he has never brought his employer into the dispute and does not think Grier should, either.
"There's an old saying, 'Never mess with a man's family or his livelihood,'" Graham said. "Well, Grier has messed with both. This is going way beyond the boundaries."
Staff writer Bruce Buchanan contributed to this report.
The school "super" has an almost Czarist power in this county, he is only accountable to the School Board and they, to quoute Sen. Fritz Hollings, are "The biggest bunch of bureaucratic jackasses i've ever seen".
Abuse of power, plain and simple.
I'll get right on it, bud.
Please FRmail me if you want on or off this NC ping list.
Needless to say the superintendent didn't use the *67 feature which blocks your number from the recepient to the call. So the leaders of our schools have stooped to elementary school thinking apparently
Oops. He gve away his talking points training: Always be ready with "I do not recall" when your crimes find you out!
I sent the guy two emails last year about a dangerous situation at one of the schools, never received a reply.
Any Maryland Freepers know of a school superintendent named Jerry Weast? How do you like him? He was cut from same cloth as Terry Grier.
A few years ago we paid for $100,000 math audit that concluded "if you don't lower the bar you are racist"
Thank God for our Asian community. They had enough sense to go balistic and it didn't happen (well at least as far as the parents can tell at this point. Who knows what they have planned )
Here is an interesting essay by Hirsch concerning the dumbing down of America in order to make everything equal outcomes, and non-oppressive (and IMHO why we are failing.)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.