Disclosure Isn’t What Ails Belmont

The Los Angeles school board, in backing away from a gag order on the Belmont high school fiasco, has done the right thing. Only vigorous disclosure can rebuild trust in the school district.

The new school board president, Genethia Hayes, issued what sounded like a gag order last week to the board and district staff. It followed a board vote to appoint a special commission to investigate the feasibility and cost of mitigating methane gas and other toxic problems at Belmont. In defending her decision, Hayes said: “This thing has been played out in the press to the point where people can’t breathe, they’re so scared of being lambasted. . . . I don’t know if that leads to a calm public dialogue.”

That was blaming the messenger: The Belmont disaster was born from a hurried, often closed process that cut off robust debate and research. Had its problems become public earlier, tens of millions of dollars might not have been poured down a rat hole. Hayes and three other reform candidates swept to victory in the election this spring in part on their promises to change the culture of the board and prevent other Belmonts.

A clarification letter was issued Friday by school district lawyer Richard Mason, responding to objections by news organizations including The Times. Mason said district employees are not forbidden to talk but senior staffers are requested not to discuss Belmont, except at once-a-week press briefings. The district should worry less about controlling the words that come out from headquarters and worry more about what is actually being accomplished--or not accomplished--there.