<<  -- 6 --  Madeline Jenkins Millard    FAUST AND THE 'FREE WORLD'

The school board met on the evening of 16 February 2006. Although the board is allowed to advise Sauter, the ultimate decisions in personnel matters are legally his alone to make. The news media were present in addition to more than fifty supporters from Bennett and around the state -- a significant turnout considering Bennett's isolated location, that it was a week night and a winter night at that. Waggoner's accusers numbered six. Attendees were invited to address the school board before it met in closed session with Superintendent Sauter. Only Waggoner's supporters spoke up. The Bennett Six felt no need to plead their case. Although Waggoner did not attend, on the advice of her attorney, she had an idea as to how things would turn out. 'Unfortunately, it's like the good old boys. Mrs Babi's husband, Michael Babi, is on the school board, and they are best friends with the Sauters. Indeed, it was rumored Michael Babi and his co-conspirators had already decided Waggoner must go, and that Superintendent George Sauter would not attempt to cross them.

This was further confirmed by Vicki Blum in an eyewitness account to BloggingBaby.com: 'Well, I went to the meeting last night and spoke on behalf of Tresa. My granddaughter is in Tresa's music class and my son also attended and spoke. Sitting directly in front of us was a mouthy little blonde who constantly was making negative comments to her friends. Such as: "She'd better not show her face here! I'll kill her!" Well, when she said to her friends, "It doesn't matter what she says, she's never coming back. Never!", my son stood up and asked if the rumors were true that the decision about her termination had already been made. He was told, "No". Well, it turns out that the blonde in question is the wife of one of the board members, who, incidentally, did not recuse himself ... When the board said they had not made a decision in advance, they lied!'

'Ticked off Mom' also had her say on BloggingBaby.com: 'Okay, for all of you people a little uptight about all of us in Bennett being same as the Taliban, let me explain how things kind of went down. This music teacher gave an explanation of why she was showing this video to K-3rd at the onset of this whole entire mess. The reason for showing this video to these grades was to explain the difference between a bass voice and a soprano voice. Well, when I asked my second-grader what they had done at school that day, I was told they watched this weird video in music class and then was asked what an illegitimate child was, not how they learned how to tell one voice from another. Now, for any of you who have kids who have tried to raise them to let them be just that -- kids, you would be scratching your head. Let's see, to explain what an illegitimate child is, there are a few other things that you have to explain, like, ummm, let's see, how babies get here in the first place ... My child, thank god [sic], still thinks that babies magically appear in your stomach (and I'm hoping it will stay that way for the next 3 or 4 years) ... However, with the millions of documentaries available on opera, this teacher selects one out of the school library ... that shows a man who sells his soul to the devil, kills the brother of the girl he has the hots for, gets the girl pregnant and then kills himself for it ... The whole point is that the teacher made a very bad choice that had some pretty hellish results for some of the parents who have chosen to raise their children in such a way that they are not exposed to this until they, the parents, feel they are mature enough to handle it ... Condemn us if you want, but it's not gonna change a whole lot.'

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