Principal in Grade Scandal Should Quit

My rudimentary recollection of journalistic principles tells me that stories in the right-hand column above the fold are major stories. So I read with interest and then increasing shock, the Nov. 29 story “Principal in O.C. Grade Scandal Faces Transfer.” What I was led to surmise from the headline was true: The principal in the Brea-Olinda High School grade-altering scheme was not being fired: He was being transferred.

Since I live in the Orange Unified School District, and neither pay taxes to nor elect the trustees of the Brea-Olinda Unified School District, all I can do is write to The Times and hope those trustees get this message: Shame on you for lacking the courage to fire the man outright.

Your article reported that all others involved in the scandal, including those who actually altered the transcripts, are not now employed in the district. Therefore, the school board has no power to discipline those errant former employees. But former principal John Johnson is still employed by the district and what happens: He not only is sent to work in the district’s office, but also he will “oversee some personnel” and “be in charge of student expulsions and suspensions.”

As a parent of school-age children and as a pastor in Orange, I ask: What message are we sending to our children? Mr. Johnson discovered the scheme and did indeed order it stopped. However, he did not order the affected students’ grades to be changed back to their original state; nor did he inform the school board until many months later that this monstrous thing had even happened. Mr. Johnson, although he altered no grades himself, aided and abetted cheating by not telling the appropriate authorities of the scheme the moment he discovered it. He was the supervisor of those guidance counselors. He made the decision to “cover up” what the guidance counselors had done. But he is not paying the full price for what he did.

Despite the tentacles of tenure, if covering up scandal is not grounds for dismissal, then apparently nothing is.

How ironic that Yorba Linda, home of the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace, is in the Brea-Olinda district. The late President Nixon, accused of the massive Watergate “cover-up,” resigned the presidency. Would that Mr. Johnson do the same honorable thing in the absence of any apparent spines on the part of the school board to fire him.

THE REV. STEPHEN H. JANSSEN

Orange