The Kiss: Praise for Marion Bolden

Marion Bolden's response to the furor around the yearbook photo that was blacked out shows that she is a stand-up person indeed.

ACLU-NJ, writing in Blue Jersey, contrasted her behavior over this incident with the writer's experience of poor decision-making by government employees --

I often share outrageous stories of poor decision making by government employees that costs the taxpayers big time. And, I usually tell people that of every category of government, no one digs their heels in on the wrong issues more than school superintendents.

Here are just a few of these stories: there was a school district in Washington State that didn't want to pay to mail the ACLU about 11 pages of public records, went to court and ended up writing the ACLU a check for almost $60,000 in attorney fees; or the school that suspended a student for having aspirin at school under a zero-tolerance policy; or the student suspended for having a chain on her Tweety Bird wallet to connect it to her jeans because they considered it a ''weapon.'' I could go on (The writer does -- DD).

But Marion Bolden turned out to be cut from different cloth -- and the ACLU write goes on to detail both the writer's experiences with other school superintendents and actions by Bolden that set her apart, concluding --

For the first time in my 15-plus-year career, I have witnessed a school superintendent putting aside her pride, leaving lawyers out of it and doing everything in her power to make it right. Her actions should serve as a model for others who find themselves in hot water over a poorly decided action. For the manner in which she ultimately handled the issue, she deserves our praise.

Amen!

-- Dan Damon

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