Apologies owed to Fresno Unified
According to The Bee, a Bullard High School senior submitted a valedictorian speech containing no criticisms of Bullard or Fresno Unified School District. But after its rejection and an email to the school by Mark Arax, a new speech appeared with criticisms echoing Mr. Arax’s past ones in his prolonged battles with FUSD.
The new speech was then presented in the context that FUSD did not want the public to hear its damaging claims (quite amazing, as they could not possibly have any knowledge of it).
Promoted by other media outlets, it falsely accuses FUSD of censorship. This framing has led people to look past whether there is any evidence for the claims.
FUSD, thanks to the less-than-diligent vetting of the opinion piece, has no way to correct this erroneous characterization. As the adage goes, a lie travels ’round the world while the truth is getting its shoes on.
Apologies are owed to FUSD, its teachers, and administrators, who did nothing more than help a young man go to Stanford University. But the real blame for this fiasco lies with the adults in this student’s life who enabled this lack of ethics, possibly as a way of furthering their own agenda against FUSD.
Richard Moore, Fresno
This story was originally published June 15, 2016 at 10:16 AM with the headline "Apologies owed to Fresno Unified."