Headlines of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’ Sunday editorial section read:
Morality lacking in school system!
System Condones Cussing!
What are teachers thinking?
Cusswords! Sex! Dancers with low-cut dresses exposing breasts! What is our school system coming to? What has happened to the rah-rah, go-team, cheers that we are all familiar with? What has happened to our society when high schools need to resort to cuss words and sexual innuendo to arouse (pun intended) fan interest?
Thursday our children attended a purported pep rally and were forced to witness a most disgusting example of the evil that is permeating our educational system and destroying the values that we, as a society, hold dear. The term “kick ass” was used more than 20 times, apparently to convey the message that the kicker was giving maximum effort. If that’s the message, why not say so? Why not say, I gave 100%, or I gave everything I had? Why resort to cuss words?
The article rambled on for two pages, concluding with; “let’s stop this trend before it gets out of hand. Call or write your school board and implore them to take back control of our educational system.” The byline for the article was: Gus Edwards, Sr. Editor.
Rosann read the article first and handed it to me while I was still engrossed in the sports section. “Take a look at this,” she added. “Apparently not everyone is enamored with the new boy at school.”
“Wow,” I said quietly as I finished skimming the article and began reading it again. “Is this guy talking about the same pep rally that I was at? What a prude!”
“He apparently has no sense of what was going on,” Rosann offered. “He obviously wasn’t there.”
“It will be interesting to see how Matthew reacts to this,” I mused while I sipped my coffee. I don’t think he will take this lying down. Monday should be an interesting day at school.”
Rosann was wrong, there was something that could be done and Matthew was already doing it. Starting with the 7:30 AM mass at St. Timothy’s, there was an announcement made at the end of each church service that morning inviting parishioners to attend a meeting at 5:00 PM at the community center to discuss the article written in today’s paper. We attended the nine AM mass and didn’t get home until noon. Everyone wanted to talk about the article and get my opinion. I was a little surprised by the strong reactions.
By 3 PM the stakes had increased. The article had been picked up by the AP news service and was spread across the Internet. The theme was the same; “Local media up in arms over lack of discipline in schools. Parents were encouraged to make a stand.”
There were over 2,000 kids and parents at the community center when we arrived. Fortunately the temperature was in the 50’s and the meeting could be held outside. Microphones were set up and Matthew quickly took control of the boisterous crowd. The crowd was edgy and could easily have been turned into an angry mob under the wrong leadership.
Matthew was calm and composed as he addressed the angry crowd. “I would like to say a couple things before we open this up for discussion. Those of you that know me know that I don’t swear and I don’t cuss, and I resent anyone that says I do. Kicking Ass is a phrase that denotes an attitude I want to instill in this school and I believe we got off to a good start Thursday. I am disappointed that someone has taken the individual words out of context and lost the meaning of the message. I choose to believe that it was an error in judgment and that somehow we can educate these people to understand what we are trying to achieve. I will try to meet with Mr. Edwards and reach a compromise. I’m sure he will understand once he has all the facts.”
“What can we do?” Matthew asked rhetorically.
“Ask your parents to phone and email the newspaper and TV stations,” he said, holding up a list. “These are names, phone numbers and email addresses of the people we should contact. There are also ‘talking points’ or suggestions on points we should stress.”
“Why not boycott their advertisers?” one parent shouted. The chorus of applause and confirming shouts indicated this was a popular viewpoint.
“Let’s hold off on this type of tactic until we determine if we can work out a compromise,” Matthew replied, trying to quiet the crowd. “Let’s not back them into a corner unless we have to.”
“They are not going to listen. The media never listens,” someone shouted.
“I hope you are wrong,” Matthew replied quietly.
Thousands of emails were sent Monday and the phones never stopped ringing; systems at both the newspaper and TV station were temporarily frozen. Wisconsin Bell added additional lines, but they weren’t enough to handle the flood of calls. Our message had been sent and all we could do now was wait for a response.
Unfortunately, the measured-response program didn’t work. Edwards refused to take Matthew’s phone calls and left a message with his secretary that he was too busy to meet with him. The crowning blow came on the 6 PM local news program where Edwards launched a strong, inflammatory editorial against “immature students that are dragging down a once-elite educational system.” The segment was later picked up and repeated by national news services on their 10 PM news hour.
Rosann and I watched in amazement as Edwards ripped into the people that defended the use of inappropriate language in schools. He went further and attacked the “sleazy dress” and “sexual innuendos” of the dance numbers, particularly the “simply the best” performance by Jennifer. “Where did this come from?” I asked. “Why did he make this personal when everything Matthew has done was in moderation?”
“Who is the kid here, and who is the adult?” Rosann added. “He obviously saw Matthew’s peace offerings as a sign of weakness. They must think they have an issue that can drive up viewer ratings.”
“I have a hunch he might have bitten off more than he can swallow.”
There was a faculty meeting first period Tuesday morning and the teachers pledged their full support to Matthew. Principal Hawkins summed it up best. “Last week I witnessed a change in attitude in the student body that I have never seen before in 30 years of teaching. These kids want to learn and our teachers seem to have more energy and an opportunity to achieve the goals we set for ourselves when we became teachers. I won’t let any uninformed opportunist destroy this opportunity.” There was unanimous and enthusiastic support for his recommendation to support the ‘we kick ass’ campaign. We waited on Matthew to tell us what to do.
Matthew spoke later to the student body at a hastily convened gathering in the school gymnasium. I was amazed at how in-depth his preparation was, particularly in such a short time. Phase two of his plan would be a boycott of the newspaper and TV station. “Urge your parents to cancel their subscriptions. Ask them to watch a different news station. We need to show them we have clout.”
“How will the Channel 12 know that we are not watching?” a student asked.
“Good question, Billy. We have hired a local polling group to conduct an independent survey over the next week. We won’t know when, so let’s make sure that Channel 12 is not turned on at your house. We also have set up committees to get the word out to all the schools in the area. If you have a friend at another school, call them and tell them to spread the word. Talk to your neighbors and explain our position. This is a countywide boycott, and if necessary we will take it statewide or even national. I have also set up a legal committee headed up by Byron’s father who is managing director of a local law firm. They will advise on our legal options. We have media people helping us create news-clips for competing television stations and articles for newspapers. We will need volunteers to go door-to-door and spread the word, so be ready to help if you are asked. Are there any questions?”
“Why not boycott the advertisers?” someone suggested again.
“Not yet. It won’t do us any good to make enemies of large corporations. I would rather have them on our side. If the polling numbers show that we turned off their station and aren’t reading their newspaper, the a
dvertisers will get the message. TV stations live and die on viewer ratings.”
“Why don’t we set up picket lines?” another student yelled out.
“No, we don’t want that image. It would be too easy for TV news clips to characterize us as rabble rousers. No, let’s hit them where it hurts – in their pocket books. I’ll be trying to get on other TV stations and explain our viewpoint.”
“Okay, if there are no more questions, let’s get back to work, I mean school. Remember, that’s why we are here. And when you get home, convince your parents to cancel their newspapers and tune-out Channel 12.”
“How are you paying for all this?” I asked Matthew after practice that afternoon. I was amazed at how well the kids were able to concentrate on basketball and shut out the distractions. “I could make a small donation if you need some cash.”
“Thanks, Coach, but we will be okay. I have a few ideas that I’m working on to raise some money.”
I had just sat down at dinner that night when the doorbell rang. “I’ll get it,” I said as I went to the door.
“May I help you?” I asked before recognizing the two students from my 3rd period Drivers-Ed class.
“Oh, Mr. Simpson, we didn’t know you lived here.”
“What can I do for you?”
“We were just going door-to-door asking people to help us out like Matthew suggested this afternoon. I guess we can count on you.”
“Come on in for a minute. Tell me how it’s going. Can we get you a coke or something to eat?” Rosann and Lisa had come out to listen.
“Thanks, a bottle of water would be nice. It’s been going real well,” Amy said. “We have been at it for three hours and this is our 93rd house. Twenty-five people weren’t home so we just left a flyer explaining our position, but more than eighty percent of the rest said they would cancel their newspaper and turn off Channel 12. That’s pretty good, don’t you think?”
“That’s awesome,” Rosann said. “How many teams are there?”
“We have 65 teams from our school and I know that several other schools have a bunch of kids out too and they will have more tomorrow. Our goal is to cover 90% of the houses in the county by tomorrow. Our computer group put a model together that allocated areas and set up optimum routes for each group. Well, we better get going. We have 12 more houses to go and I still have a ton of homework. Bye, and thanks for the water.”
Rosann and I just looked at each other for a few moments after girls left. “What an undertaking,” I thought. “Does Edwards know what he got into?”
The opinion poll was taken Thursday evening and the results were made available on Saturday. The newspaper already knew the results. Half the readers in the County had cancelled their subscriptions, 95% in the Shorewood school district. The Journal tried to deliver the papers anyway until angry phone calls and near fights caused them to succumb to their readers’ demands as unwanted newspapers were thrown into the streets or at the delivery trucks if the target was available. Channel 12’s share of the audience had dropped 38% overall and over 60% during the normally lucrative news hour. They had fallen from first to last in comparative viewer rankings.
Matthew made four television appearances Wednesday and Thursday on competing networks. His calm, thoughtful demeanor and well thought out message was turning public opinion to our side. Sunday morning Matthew appeared on Face the Nation and received an invitation to appear on CNN’s Larry King Live show. Station owners scheduled an emergency meeting at Channel 12 for Wednesday morning. They were starting to feel the heat from their advertisers.
Gus Edwards was having dinner Sunday evening with his wife Emily, daughter Glenda and son Jeffrey. The atmosphere was thick with tension until Glenda and Jeffrey were finally excused from the table after picking at their food. The dinner was one of their favorites, but nobody was hungry. In fact, Emily thought, they hadn’t eaten well in a week. It wasn’t hard to figure out why. Glenda was a tenth grader at Nicolet High School and was being given the silent treatment by all but a couple of her closest friends. Everyone knew it was her father that was the cause of the problem and most of her friends were going door-to-door in support of the boycott. Peer pressure was difficult to withstand when you are 16. Jeffrey was 12 and idolized Matthew Wilson; all his friends did. Everyone dreamed about growing up to play basketball like Matthew, and kicking ass.
Chapter 11 - Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner