The following is a video published on the South Washington County District 833 Schools website. It was filmed at the "Back to School Event" prior to the 2013-14 school year. Included in the video is Superintendent Jacobus, several school board members and Dr. Jacobus's administrative cabinet, along with presumably the entire District 833 teaching staff attending teacher workshops prior to starting the school year.
This video leaves me shaking my head in dumbfounded disbelief that the very school district that had so many controversies last year would begin this new school year with this performance. If the vision of the very short man surrounded by what is only to be assumed to be a group of...bodyguards? Secret Service? Thugs? Goon Squad? - isn't enough, three of the men are also sporting large Afro-style wigs, for absolutely no apparent reason. Ironically, or perhaps, intentionally, one of the Afro-wigged men also happens to be the East Ridge High School Principal, who was at the center of one of the major controversies last year when he failed to vet a school-wide presentation commemorating the Black Panthers on Valentine's Day. But here he is, sportin' a huge wig, "protecting" his superintendent's walk into ERHS's gymnasium.
What exactly was the goal of this performance? What was the district leadership attempting to portray with this stunt? And how could the members of the school board sit there and watch this without serious concerns over the image or perception such an act was producing of the district and its leadership, especially when there are five school board seats opening up this fall, with thirteen challengers running against four incumbents, and the district is asking the voters for more money in a levy referendum as well?
