Bruce Apar’s Blog

What happens next? That’s the question countless students and parents, and other relatives, of students are asking about the shocking news that Yorktown High School Principal John Sullivan has been suspended by Yorktown Central School District Superintendent Dr. Ralph Napolitano. The suspension is effective immediately, as reported first anywhere Thursday, Feb. 14, on the home page of our website NCNlocal.com under “Latest News.”

The rumors and speculation are flying faster than frisbees, but the truth remains elusive to the public, which already is impatient, frustrated and fairly demanding to know more about what happened and why.

The facts of the matter are known only to a handful of insiders, including, of course, the protagonist and antagonist in this local drama. The biggest — and central — question of all is who is whom?

It is a testament to Mr. Sullivan that several students took it upon themselves to issue a statement of support, which we have published in full at NCNlocal.com. You can read it by clicking on the corresponding Latest News headline at top of the home page.

However, this story has just begun, and we have reason to believe there is much more to come from both sides, with the principal and his loyalists on one side, and the superintendent, the Board of Education and their allies on the other.

Even though the student statement aforementioned is signed “Representing the Yorktown High School Student body,” it is signed only by nine seniors, out of a class of approximately 300. That no doubt is due mostly to the lack of time the students had in preparing the brief document. As a substitute for being able to gather more signatures, the students substituted the quoted language above.

Yet, I received a call from an adult inside the school Friday who noted that while half the student body may have been protesting outside, the other half remained inside the building. For whatever reason — and no doubt there were varied reasons — these students were not moved to “take it outside.” One of those reasons, according to the caller, was that the students felt they did not have sufficient information on what happened to object to it.

That’s an interesting, moderate and mature reaction to the rapidly unfolding situation. It also means it was not accurate, or even fair, for the nine students who did sign the statement to presumptuously claim their sentiments reflected the state of mind of the entire student body.

There’s a telltale sentence or two at the tail end of the student statement that strongly suggests they were coached in writing at least part of the position paper. “The student body recognizes that the suspension is not due to a violation of contract, but rather a clash of personalities.” How would students, on their own, know anything about a confidential contract between their principal and his employer, the school district?

One way is for faculty members to advise them of such details. We are not saying that teachers or any other members of the high school staff partial to the principal asked students to do their bidding for them, but if they did, we’ll know soon enough.

In the meantime, random conversations we had with parents Friday revealed some recurring questions that inquiring minds want to know, including:

If there was, in fact, cause for suspension, why was it done disruptively in the middle of the school year instead of waiting for the end of classes in June?

Why are a missed meeting and not completing performance evaluations cause for suspension?

After this episode, which makes our school district look like a “laughingstock,” why would any worthy principal want to work here?

Those are some of the comments we’ve been hearing. Finally, with the next Board of Education meeting set for Tuesday, Feb. 26, where the suspension will be publicly addressed, parents are saying there better be some extremely good justifications presented at that time for why their children’s education and (as one said) even their college acceptance opportunities are being jeopardized by this shock to the system.

The Board of Education has a lot of explaining to do, but they don’t need me — or anybody else for that matter — to tell them that. They already know it.

To be continued … to say the least.