No excuse crimes against children

Brenda Cannon HenleyBy Brenda Cannon Henley
Some adults should never be allowed to be in any educational role because of their own tenuous hold on reality. In their own personhood, they are slight, insubstantial, meager, flimsy, weak, doubtful, dubious, questionable, suspect, wispy, gossamer, and fragile, and those words are from the very definition of the word, tenuous. They got into the field to please momma or daddy, or because a position was available. In other cases, they knew someone, school boards did not do their homework, past employers weren’t truthful, or they changed names so many times no one could find them in a normal search. In realty, they care little about the children in their care and what makes me really angry is that their slothfulness hurts the really good men and women who give their life to teaching.

The saddest thing to me is that the end result of their actions can carry over in the life of the children they choose to pounce on for the entire lifetime of the child. I have met so many good teachers, educators who love and care, and who work hard, often giving of their own resources, that I am almost ashamed to mention this one really bad egg, but it may be a help to people choosing staff members and personnel.

I was assigned to do a story on a new hire for a lofty position in a school situation. I was looking forward to meeting the woman, getting to know her, and painting a word picture for our community. I found her standoffish, not glad to see me, and less than forthcoming when I arrived. Her first upset was her name. She did not know it. What I mean by that is that I soon found she had five different versions of her same name with the addition of two or three married ones. I was just trying to determine the correct one for the article, but she immediately thought I was on to something and I was within a few hours of getting back to my office, thanks to her baffling actions. She did not like nosey reporters for good reason. They had written about her true background on several occasions in other areas and she felt I knew about it.

From there on, the interview went downhill and I collected little to make me able to write a pleasant and informative article. The entire article was difficult to complete because no one really wanted to talk about her or give quotes worth printing. I could see that a mile off, but I did what I could.

It wasn’t long after school opened that the complaints really began to fly. She made one rule one day and a new one the next — Depending on what the name of the student was that had been involved. She was so fearful of losing her position or her standing that she did her best to play up to the noted members of the community, the school board, the elected officials, and for a time even the clergy, but that soon grew thin. She was overwhelmed and in way over her head. Rather than simply resign and move on to something she might be prepared to do, she played big and bad and hurt many kids. Parents called the newspaper and wanted stories done and they wanted answers as to how their money was being spent.

I did not say anything to anyone about what I had leaned in my research and preparation to write about her until an incident happened that I became aware of on a more personal level. Making a very long story short, something happened at school and she accused one student, knowing full well it was another student in the wrong. Nothing would change her mind, from the testimony of seven other students, one staff member, a coach, and a member of the sheriff’s department who was called in to investigate. She literally out of thin air made up charges and swore to them as truth. She felt she was protecting a wealthy member of the community’s child while the other student she felt had lesser standing. She was wrong. She also thought the school board wasn’t on to her, but they were.

The best thing to ever happen to that school was to see her removed in disgrace, lose her standing, her job, and her income. The children she hurt most have gone on to good successes no thanks to her. May God protect our kids from wherever the crimes originate and from whoever the criminals are that inflict the damage. It seems so much worse when the people involved are thought to be for the children rather than against.

Brenda Cannon Henley can be reached at (409) 781-8788, or
[email protected].

[8-6-2018]

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One Response to “No excuse crimes against children”

  1. Mike LeBlanc says:

    YOU HAVE LOST ALL OF MY RESPECT! You do not respond to any emails! You talk the talk but do not come close to walking the walk! You have no excuse!

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