This story offers so much to anybody in public governance. Particular to anyone looking for examples of how not to practice public engagement. High school kid, at school, calls school district administrator's home, during the school day, requesting he and his spoiled chums be given the day off because of a few snow flakes. Administrator is not home. Administrator's shrieking wife calls back and leaves a crazy/weird rant message on kid's cell phone. Don't call us you brat, etc. Kid then immediately posts the thing on YouTube. School district is humiliated, but is not smart enough to know it. School district spokesman Paul Regnier says: "Any call to a public servant's house is harrassment." Which is likely news to much of the republic.
The reason adults are made to look like goofballs so easily by kids is, well, obvious: Because it's so easy. And not just because kids understand the technology better than the adults who run their schools. It's also because of arrogance, through a lazy haze of entitlement, creating such a vast distance between public school district leaders and the schools' customers/consumers/constituents: the students themselves, and their families. If public officials themselves -- and public school administrators are public officials -- would make even the slightest effort to engage their communities through use of these Internet tools, blogging being just one, could idiot events like this be avoided? Who won this public perception battle, and why? Municipalist will be soliciting some responses in the coming days.
Alas, the YouTube video was taken down. WashingtonPost.com story has a link, but it is gone. Too bad. Recordings of snarling, howling, wailing public official spouses, of either gender, make fine early evening listening here at The Home Office. An experience we liken to sipping a fine wine. Say, a lovely Napa Valley Cabernet. Mmmmm.
UPDATE: Fabulous audio from ABC News here.
If your phone number is in the phone book and public information, anyone, ANYONE has permission to call you no matter your job description. Once they do, you can ask them not to call that number again, and if they continue it is harrassment. If you don’t want anyone and everyone to call you, unpublicize it.
The student calling the house is not something I or some of you would do, but that doesn’t make it wrong. It doesn’t sound like he said anything inappropriate, he just left a message.
In addition, for a grown adult to turn around and return the call of a minor and talk the way she did is absolutely wrong. The message wasn’t even for her, she should have let her husband handle it. I say she crossed the line.
As a public figure, I get numerous calls at home and publicize my number. No problem, I expect it. There is no such thing as “off duty”.
Posted by: Jennifer | January 25, 2008 at 06:50 AM