Federal Investigation of Schools

Richard L. Connor

April 23, 2009

It’s past time to clean up our dirty town Richard L. Connor Opinion

SOME THINGS you remember with crystal clarity.

As clear as a crystal snowflake.

The snow was falling on a February day at Sno Mountain as I stood watching my daughter sliding down a hill. I had been back in Wilkes-Barre for about six months after a 25-year absence. My wife and daughter had just moved here.

Kindly, a parent had invited our daughter in her first week in a new school to a birthday party at the ski slope.

A mother standing next to me watching the children on the tubing run introduced herself. She explained she was a native who had left Wilkes-Barre after graduating from college but had been inconsolably homesick in the years she was gone. She convinced her husband they had to move back.

“Why’d you leave in the first place?” I asked.

She explained she had never planned to leave but she wanted to teach.

“I didn’t know anyone and so I couldn’t get a teaching job locally,” she said.

It was just another reminder to me that you can leave a place for two decades and return to find out that little has changed. This area has long held the reputation as a place where corruption reigns whether it is in the county courthouse or in our public school system.

Today, after months of publicity about our two corrupt judges, Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella, that continues to be a blight on our community, we find our schools under scrutiny by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Currently, the Wilkes-Barre Area School Board and the Wilkes-Barre Area Career and Technical Center are the focus of a grand jury investigation.

The focus is on allegations that some teachers have been hired either because they paid someone for the jobs or because they received favorable treatment because of a relative or a friend, most likely on the school board.

Now, the FBI is asking residents to phone with tips. It’s time to put up or shut up. Silence will only continue to thwart the prospects that this area can ever make substantial progress.

Sad and unfair as it might be, the Wyoming Valley continues to suffer from two things. One is that the actions of a few cast a cloud on the efforts of many among us who have worked to improve life here for our citizens and who had labored to overcome the negative image we have. The second is that too many persons have either looked the other way when they saw actions that were wrong or continue to this day to either apologize for their friends or worse, excuse their actions.

Someone last week wrote to us they are tired of reading about the bad judges and other courthouse scandals.

Well, sorry, but this reporting is going to continue. What you are seeing should be clear. When government and our institutions fail us, the press doesn’t. That’s the beauty of a free and independent press. No other country enjoys the fruits of the labors of a free press like ours does.

We make mistakes. We’re far from perfect.

But we have our own internal controls and sense of ethics. Lots of attention is given today to bloggers and others who write on the Internet. Sure, there is a fair amount of activity in cyberspace, but most of it is just that: activity.

Most of the bloggers are unreliable, petty and venal. Mostly they just spread rumors and promote their own agendas.

The mainstream press is the most credible source of information. You need experienced reporters digging and writing. And then you need experienced editors who scrutinize those stories to make certain we are doing the best possible and most accurate job.

We’re in for a long haul here but at some point most of these investigations will end. The FBI will move on and try to clean up another town.

We’ll be left to rebuild and keep it clean for the future.

Richard L. Connor is editor and publisher of The Times Leader. Reach him at rconnor@timesleader.com

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