Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 8, 1990 TAG: 9006080283
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MONTEREY LENGTH: Long
Not Thursday.
When the first-period bell rang Thursday morning at Highland High School, about 120 of the 167 students walked out in protest, demanding that their principal be fired.
The most serious of their 19 grievances: that Steven McDaniel has made "inappropriate [comments] to female students" about their good looks, comments he says were simply innocent remarks that were "misconstrued."
By the end of the day, what began with students quietly milling around the school's front lawn had turned into an angry, taunting mob.
Students hoisted a white protest flag on the flagpole. They shouted down the county school superintendent when he tried to report on his daylong negotiations with student leaders. The students demanded the principal present himself to answer their grievances.
But when McDaniel appeared, the students shouted him down, too.
With a TV news truck rumbling down the school's driveway, Superintendent T.C. Dickerson pulled the beleaguered principal from the crowd and the two retreated inside the school amid boos and jeers.
In a few moments, many of the girls were crying - and lining up to hug Mary Lou Cox, a popular math teacher who is resigning because she says she cannot get along with McDaniel.
Another girl was shouting that someone should go into the school and bring McDaniel back out to face the crowd. "Let's go get him!" she hollered.
"This is terrible," sophomore Marc Herwald said, as he wandered around the chaotic scene. "I personally don't know what to do."
Neither did the superintendent nor principal.
McDaniel stared out the window and had little to say. "I really want to talk to my students," he said, but not in the hostile setting he had just faced.
Dickerson sat in an office, sipping coffee. "I'm mentally kind of drained," he said. "I've obviously got to do some collecting thoughts and regrouping."
With fewer than 3,000 citizens, Highland County is the smallest county in the state. It's a place that attracts people like Etta Blankenship, who moved here from Baltimore to raise her daughter in the quiet of the countryside. "I never realized her education would be in jeopardy," she said.
Parents and students say discontent with McDaniel has been smoldering all year, ever since he was brought in from Pocahontas County, W.Va., as a disciplinarian to shape up the school. His critics call him a tyrant and a dictator; McDaniel blames his problems on poor communication and says he's trying to do a better job.
In the last few weeks, though, ever since the School Board renewed McDaniel's contract for the next school year, controversy has gripped the community.
"I've lived here my entire life," said parent Janice Warner, "and never have I ever witnessed anything like this, never have I seen everyone so upset."
Students have circulated petitions demanding that McDaniel be fired; parents are circulating petitions of their own in the community. Thursday morning, McDaniel was the main topic of conversation among patrons at the Maple Restaurant downtown.
Some students are threatening to transfer to arch-rival Bath County if McDaniel returns in the fall. "I know 17 parents have kids ready to go to Bath County and are looking for a bus to take them there," Blankenship said.
"This is not the outcry of shrill, hysterical malcontents and newcomers with weird ideas," read a recent editorial in the local newspaper, The Recorder. "This anguish is coming from the heart of our small society."
It's not just a dispute about McDaniel anymore, either. He's become a flashpoint for larger complaints about a School Board that critics say is dominated by elderly, penny-pinching farmers with no kids of their own in school. After one recent dispute over teachers' pay, the husband of a substitute teacher was charged with assault and battery against the chairman of the School Board.
With all the commotion, "it's been a real stressful situation," said sophomore Jennifer Warren. "We've had teachers walk out of class because they're so upset, and cry during class."
Parent Rae Ginn claims she has heard as many as 11 of the school's 18 teachers are thinking about quitting because they cannot stand McDaniel. The teachers generally declined comment, and McDaniel said he knew only about Cox.
After McDaniel's opponents held a boisterous - and to their way of thinking, unproductive - meeting Monday night with the School Board, students decided to stage a walkout.
For most of the day, it resembled an outdoor study hall. Some kids pored over books for exams that start today; others played baseball. Tape players blasted Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It." Parents brought bags of food and congratulated the kids on being so well-behaved.
The students' list of grievances included vague complaints, such as that McDaniel "shows favoritism" and "lacks respect" for students and teachers.
When McDaniel met with the students, he promised to work on those problems. But the session quickly turned into an emotional shouting match when sophomore Leslie Mitchell hollered at the principal: "What about comments you've made to young girls, including myself, and others who are afraid to come forward?"
McDaniel tried to apologize, but Mitchell interrupted: "How can you tell a student she's physically attractive - what is she supposed to think?"
McDaniel said the girls had misconstrued his remarks, just as they had misinterpreted many of his other actions during the school year. "It was not meant as a come-on, it was not meant as a sexual advance."
One of the boys came to the girl's defense. "Then just what was it?" he shouted.
Another girl shouted that McDaniel had told her she made his heart flutter.
Soon after, Dickerson whisked the principal away.
Some students said they wanted to walk out today as well but could not afford to miss exams.
McDaniel said he would be at school as usual today. However, he said, "It's not going to be easy."
by CNB