It Was the Principle of the Thing

He used to spend a lot of time in the principal’s office, then he got himself expelled. Now he’s been marched right back to the principal’s office--and cheers rattled the rafters of the Richmond, Mass., Town Hall when it happened. Norman Najimy is neither truant nor class cut-up. He’s the principal of the 200-pupil elementary school in the Berkshire town of 1,600. Four weeks ago, he cut his own job so the district would not have to lay off teachers. But after an outpouring of support from parents, the school committee voted unanimously not to let Najimy get away and reinstated him. It vowed to get the funds to continue Najimy’s $43,000 salary, one way or another. Bowing to the will of the majority, the 37-year veteran teacher said: “The parents have been wonderful and so have the senior citizens. It’s a myth they don’t care about their schools. Richmond’s senior citizens were ready to make cash donations out of their own pockets.”

--You’re never too young to tangle with the Internal Revenue Service, 5-year-old Dustin Crowley of Ogden, Utah, discovered when he got a letter from the IRS saying he owed $48,000 and that his property was liable to be seized. Dustin’s mother, Vickie Crowley, retained a lawyer. Finally, IRS spokesman Jan Hadley admitted it was all a mistake. The case involved a firm that had gone bankrupt, and Dustin Crowley had been erroneously named as a creditor. “We tried to send the letters out to parents, and in this particular case we were unable to figure out who was the parent or the child,” Hadley said. “Dustin is not responsible” and the levy against his bike was lifted, she added. Dustin’s mother said she had never heard of the company that supposedly counted the Crowleys as creditors.

--In a plane loaded with tons of donated medicines, food, tents, clothing and other supplies, Ethel Kennedy, widow of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and her son Michael headed for Africa to meet with leaders from the Congo, Angola and Namibia. The journey originally was to have been just business--Michael Kennedy is chairman of an oil exploration company--but shortly before his death, Rep. Mickey Leland (D-Tex.) had spoken to Michael Kennedy and suggested: “ ‘Why don’t you bring over medical supplies?’ ” said Jean Fleischman, spokeswoman for the oil company. Leland had been invited to join the Kennedy mission, but had a previous commitment to make another Africa trip--the one on which he died in a plane crash last week.