Dick Yarbrough
Some, however, felt I was being unfair to The Walker School since all of the students attended class there.
Sorry. You are shooting at the wrong target.
If you are concerned about The Walker School's image, let me suggest that you aim your slings and arrows of outrage at the people most responsible for your ire, namely Ms. Busch, state Sen. John Wiles (R-north Cobb), the kids who attended the party and chugged the hooch even though they were underage and the parents who should have known what their children were doing at 3 a.m.
I did not host the party. I am not the person being investigated by a special prosecutor on the suspicion of providing alcoholic beverages to underage youth. I did not threaten to call Cobb County Director of Public Safety Mickey Lloyd and/or police Chief G.B. Hatfield. I did not pull a police officer off to the side and suggest that he go easy on a Walker student who has a baseball scholarship to Rice University.
I did not get the baseball player in hot water at my party and then represent him as his attorney, writing a memo to an overmatched assistant prosecutor in the Cobb Solicitor's office and asking if he would consider an "alternative diversion program" and let the kid's baseball practice serve as community service since Rice (and I love this part) "is a not-for-profit University," clearly distinguishing it from Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Parker, Colo., a for-profit school with whom Rice University is often confused.
There is an old saying in the public relations business: "If you don't want to see your name in the New York Times - or the Marietta Daily Journal - then don't say it or don't do it."
The corollary to that is "If you don't want to see your institution's good name besmirched then (a) don't serve alcohol to underage students who attend said institution; (b) don't drink it if you are said underage student; and (c) don't get righteously indignant with the police who are investigating (a) and (b).
That, boys and girls, is how you get your name in the paper.
To my knowledge, neither MDJ news editor Kim Isaza, who has reported on the story, nor your modest and much-beloved columnist has gotten the facts wrong. The wrong is questionable behavior by a bunch of people associated with the school. It isn't being helped by Busch's poor judgment or Wiles' press release, which doesn't mention asking police to cut the baseball player some slack and which claims he never told police he was a state senator. Police reports say he did. Who are you going to believe?
Two positive things have occurred recently. First, Cobb Solicitor Barry Morgan has refiled charges against William Maxwell, the 19-year old baseball player who whose blood alcohol reading, according to a Cobb Police report, was more than twice the legal limit, which doesn't qualify him for the diversion program. A first-offender's blood-alcohol content must be .08 or less at the time of the citation. Maxwell's was more than twice that - .171 - according to his citation and news reports. Not only is the diversion program toast at this point, it also doesn't allow him to work on his cut fastball as public penance.
Second, Walker Headmaster Don Robertson, in a letter to parents, called the incident "an opportunity to turn a horrible situation into a teachable moment." I couldn't agree more.
He might start his tutorial with Sen. Wiles and Judge Busch who don't seem to understand the term, "I apologize." They are too busy covering their rear ends and lawyering up to remember what can happen when teens, alcohol and automobiles are mixed.
Then, Mr. Robertson might want to remind The Walker School family that the press didn't cause this mess. They did it to themselves.
If you don't want to see your name in the paper - well, you know the rest.
You can reach Dick Yarbrough at yarb2400@bellsouth.net or P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta, Georgia 31139.
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How did we get from square one to square two? Are the two connected? Was the weapon complaint ever been resolved?
Yep, the MDJ has only served the public good these last few weeks associating the school of these "pretigious" teens with non-stop replays of details in a police report. What exactly was the point of mentioning their high school? Why is it even relevant? Here is a news flash - teenagers make poor choices and the faculty, parents and fellow students at their schools don't have anything to do with it. I assume to be fair you will list the schools and their Principal/Headmaster whenever you run a story on a police report involving teens in the future. That way we can all be alerted to the guilt by association of several hundred people who were not involved but deserve a public beatdown none the less. Maybe you can find out where these teens go to church so we can throw mud at those institutions as well; might as well bring down anybody that even knows this wild bunch.
Your editorial of today is a self-righteous joke. I don't know why the MDJ wants to trash the reputation of a great local school but it's pretty clear your staff is on a mission. Hey Dick, just curious, anybody at your high school ever drink alcohol before they were legal age? If that happened I sure could use that information so I can shield my kid from associating with anyone affiliated with such a terrible institution. Sorry to tell you but I would not be able to read your Commentaries with an open mind knowing you were part of such an irresponsible student body.
I can't wait to read tomorrow's public flogging - I guess that was your point all along.
Most of us get the point, but some are so far entrenched in their own self importance, they will never see the reality here.
Thanks for helping to keep the real issue at the forefront, maybe some self awareness will leak into some highly indignant, self important people related to this incident.
I hope that nothing like this ever happens to any of your grandkids or the school they attend. Somehow I think if it did, you wouldn't be so quick to write about it in your column. Walker is a good school with good students and good parents. There will always be kids who are going to make mistakes, and there will always be parents who don't make the right decisions every time. Let's don't crucify them in the press...have a heart mister!