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Calhoun, Allegany administration could have own 'teachable moment'
The quickest way to get children to behave badly is to tell them they are bad

Opinion by Jeff Hedrick
Contributing Writer
CUMBERLAND, Dec. 29 -- “Teachable moment” is a phrase that is bandied about a lot these days. The current controversy at Allegany High School was described to me by a teacher as one of these teachable moments, but I have not yet been able to decipher what Principal Mike Calhoun is teaching.

The Sweetheart dance, otherwise known as the Winter Formal has been cancelled at Allegany due to what Calhoun termed “dirty dancing” at the Homecoming dance in October. This type of dancing known as “grinding” is what dancing is these days.

Calhoun reported to the media that he had warned the students last year about this dancing and that they ignored his warnings so in response dances are now cancelled at Allegany. Vague descriptions of lewd dancing, reports of “mock sexual acts” and “lap dances” were reported by the administration at Alco to validate their actions.

On the surface it would appear that the kids at Allegany are just terribly lewd kids who have no manners or self respect, at least that’s what Calhoun wants you to believe. The problem is, the same basic groups of students attended homecoming dances at Mountain Ridge, Bishop Walsh and Fort Hill and very few if any problems were reported at these schools. How is it that the same kids from the same basic community could attend dances at four different high schools but only act lewdly at one school?

Could it be that what one set of administrators and teacher define as “lewd” is defined as dancing at other schools? In fact only one couple at Alco was either asked to leave or chose to leave on their own after being disciplined.

Could it be that Calhoun had failed to arrange enough supervision at the Allegany dance? It is my understanding that though present at the dance Calhoun spent the evening in the gym lobby rather than in the gym observing the behavior of the students. It is also my understanding that the chaperones for the dance consisted of one teacher, a few student teachers from FSU and a hand full of cheerleading parents who volunteered to stay and chaperone after they discovered that the school had failed to arrange enough supervision.

The problem as I see it is not the dancing. I am not advocating this type of dancing - nor objecting to it. I join those students, parents and members of the community who believe that the adults in matters such as these have a greater responsibility to fully address the issue and to work out a compromise with the students, thereby setting a good example of how relationships are supposed to work.

Maybe the style of dancing is inappropriate but that is not truly the issue. In 1923, adults labeled the Charleston as “lewd.” In 1956, Elvis was televised from the waist up because censors felt his hips were “vulgar.” Adults will never like how teens dance, but to ban all dances rings of Communist North Korea or the Taliban.

The problem as I see it is the failure of the school administration to address the issue with the students and attempt to remedy it. Since the dance in October, Calhoun has failed to meet with the interested parties. There was simply a messaged delivered by a teacher to the senior class officers that the Winter Formal was cancelled and that the Senior Prom would likely be cancelled as well.

In response, the senior class officers chose to cancel the school-sponsored prom and have set out to put on their own prom. As the parent of the senior class president, I implored them to reach out to Calhoun and attempt to resolve the issue. The students declined because they felt there was no point. These students have learned that it does no good to fight the administration and that there concerns would fall on deaf ears. I asked current school board members to reach out to the students and the administration and resolve this issue. I received defensive responses that clearly backed the administration’s side, even without the board members conducting any independent fact-finding. This would not happen in a world-class school system. Students should feel empowered by teachers and the administration. Empowered to address a situation the way grown-ups do . Empowered to sit down and hash out a solution to a problem. Students should not be bullied into just giving up and going away.

The quickest way to get children to behave badly is to tell them they are bad. Calling the Cumberland Times-News and bashing your students the way Calhoun did doesn’t solve the problem - it exacerbates it. This grandstanding by Calhoun draws attention away from the issue and towards him. It embarrasses the entire Allegany High School community.

Maybe that’s what Calhoun’s intention was. In the years since leaving his job as head football coach at Fort Hill and becoming principal at Allegany, Calhoun has allowed the school to go into disrepair and has allowed the future existence of Allegany to be called into question on several occasions. He has allowed issues regarding several school organizations to become public as well. Now in 2010 Calhoun once again has given the reputation of Allegany High School a black eye. These actions make many in the community question his true allegiance.

I personally am appalled that Calhoun has chosen this path to dealing with a situation that administrators across the nation have had to address. Again I beg the question, why do these problems not exist at other county high schools?

Maybe the real solution isn’t banning the dances at Allegany, maybe it is sending Calhoun to meet with administrators at Fort Hill, Mountain Ridge and Bishop Walsh so that they can show him how to avoid such problems and he can have his own teachable moment.