Editorial

Disband the State Historical Commission

“Rogue Agency” an obstacle to economic recovery

Another example of "Political Correctness" carried to bureaucratic silliness

It doesn’t take a Ph.D. in Economics to know that jobs are the key to Massachusetts’ recovery from the Great Recession, as well as to the state government’s long term financial stability.  Every new job brought to Massachusetts – or every existing job retained here – brings with it both tax revenue and spending in local economies. 

With apologies to Bill Clinton's campaign manager James Carville, “It’s the economy, stupid!” He other dictum was "Change vs. more of the same."

Some time ago our state pols fell under the sway of "Political Correctness" which gradually took hold from elementary school to university, from the media to the arts, from the country fields to factories and offices, and they learned to say what it was safe to say, and unfortunately also legislate that way.

The Massachusetts Historical Commission (MHC) is one egregious example of legislative political correctness on drugs.

In recent months we have watched the Massachusetts Historical Commission as a major impediment to the state’s economic recovery.  The breaking point came with the Commission’s interference in Meditech’s plans to develop a $65 million project on a parcel in Freetown where the company hoped to employ 800 people.  When Indian artifacts were rumored to exist on the property the Commission became involved and has brought the project to a screeching halt.

The Commission’s arbitrary and capricious use of their ill-defined mission.Much has been written in the months since our October 12, 2011 editorial on the topic.  Articles like last week’s story in the Fall River Herald News have brought out more accounts of the Commission’s arbitrary and capricious use of their ill-defined mission to block one business project after another.  Referred to as a “rogue agency” by some, the group apparently operates without oversight and with no way to appeal its decisions, according to David Begelfer of the commercial real estate trade association NAIOP Massachusetts.

Any place in Massachusetts could be declared “historic”

The classic David Horsey cartoon says it all.Virtually any place in Massachusetts could be declared “historic” by one special interest or another.  We saw this with the recent CapeWind controversy over a beach where the Mashpee Wampanoag’s – the Christian-converted “praying Indians” – once observed pagan sun worship rituals.  Fortunately that particular case did not stand up to the light of day.

No one denies that Native Americans suffered a terrible fate at the hands of the Europeans invaders of North America, but the definitive website on their burial customs says that Northwest coastal tribes put their dead in mortuary cabins or canoes fastened to poles, not buried as Americans do today. But the MHC's standard, every inch oif ground in our state may be subject to reclaim as a sacred burial site.

Despite the agitation in the press and commercial groups, neither Secretary of State William Galvin (under whose office the Commission operates) nor Governor Deval Patrick have stepped up to address the damage this agency is doing to the state’s economy.

We believe that the Legislature must now take leadership on this critical issue.  We urge you to contact your state representative and state senator to demand that they disband the Massachusetts Historical Commission.

Even a Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court isn't safe

If our elected officials won’t take ownership of this issue, there is perhaps a way the citizens can get their attention.  Does anyone remember when Supreme Court Justice David Souter ran afoul of his fellow citizens in Weare, NH over the issue of eminent domain?  Some of the good people of Weare suggested that his own home be taken by eminent domain.  That certainly got his and other people’s attention.

So perhaps the good people of Brighton could start by declaring Secretary Galvin’s home in Brighton as an historically significant site, demanding that the buildings be removed and the property returned to its historic condition.  Then they could move on to Governor Patrick’s house and yours.

Read the rebuttal Letter to the Editor here.One way or another, it’s time to get our elected officials’ attention on this issue.  The MHC  cannot be allowed to continue its campaign against the state’s economy.

Sandwich Students Flock to Sturgis

SANDWICH’S KNIGHT FLIGHT

   
   Is Sandwich High becoming a Cape version of 'Salem's Lot?

Sandwich Students Flock to Sturgis Lottery - A quarter of SHS students apply

Cape Cod Today has learned from a trusted source that 25% of the incoming freshman class at Sandwich High School entered the Sturgis Charter Public School enrollment lottery last spring.  With all that’s going on in their town’s beleaguered school system, who can blame them?

Actually, who can blame anyone for wanting to attend Sturgis?  The school consistently ranks as one of the best public high schools in the United States.  And who can blame anyone for wanting to avoid Sandwich High School?  While SHS is ranked among the 500 best high schools by Newsweek magazine, recent publicity surrounding the school makes us wonder why a parent would dare send their child there.

Questions Continue to Emerge

As the highly publicized Ty McGrath assault case grinds forward, more questions emerge by the day.  McGrath’s mother feels her son was targeted by district administrators because she filed a report about a football player who was allegedly smoking a joint just prior to a varsity game – and was allowed to play in that game despite her report. 

We have the assault and battery case where McGrath is alleged to have beaten a freshman both in the school locker room and outside the building.  There is the resulting case against the alleged victim’s brother who is charged with making threats against McGrath.

McGraths are contemplating lawsuits against the Sandwich police and perhaps even the alleged victim’s family. We also have the journalist-heaven story of a police officer reprimanded in open court by a judge for improper interrogation tactics, causing a confession by Mr. McGrath to be thrown out of the case he is defending.

Yesterday, the “Sandwich Watchdog” blog – clearly a supporter of Mr. McGrath – implied that the McGraths are contemplating lawsuits against the police and perhaps even the alleged victim’s family. 

Meanwhile the alleged victim’s family has held their silence on any civil actions they may be contemplating against the school or Mr. McGrath.  Sandwich Watchdog reports that the McGraths will not settle the case with a plea bargain but expect young Ty to be exonerated at trial.

If the Lawsuit Fits…

Assistant Superintendent Maxine Minkoff received a settlement of $165,000. The Sandwich Public Schools have spent a lot of time on lawsuits lately.  There was the shameful case of Assistant Superintendent Maxine Minkoff, who went after the district for a breach of contract surrounding her dismissal in 2009.  Minkoff eventually received a settlement of $165,000. 

Then there was the court battle of former Superintendent Mary Ellen Johnson, who also claimed a breach of contract but eventually was defeated in the courts.

Heaven knows what other litigation the district might be involved with.  With everyone seeming to be in such a litigious mood around town, we wonder how the school leadership is able to spare the time to educate students.

Institutionalized Bullying?

The Sandwich school leadership remains silent.Some of the comments by Julianne McGrath have left us wondering if there is some kind of institutionalized bullying that’s sanctioned at Sandwich High School.  Ms. McGrath implies that if her son was in trouble and she hadn’t been in the administration’s disfavor then the alleged assault might have been handled differently. 

Does this mean that it’s okay for seniors to beat up freshmen as long as their parents are on the Good Do-Bee list in the office?  Are there sanctioned gangs of jocks stalking the locker rooms to pounce upon unsuspecting underclassmen?    

We don’t know and the school leadership remains silent.

Is It Something in the Water?

The town which gave us Jeff Perry, Camp Good News.Sandwich is that garden spot of the Upper Cape that brought us the Camp Good News scandal last year.  Senator Scott Brown blew the lid off that godly establishment when he told us in his biography of the sexual molestation at the hands of a camp staffer. 

The town managed to overlook the shameful past of its local State Rep. Jeff Perry.

Then there was the big Sandwich Community School swimming pool locker room scandal last year, where parents were concerned that their kids were in the locker rooms with un-vetted community pool members.  Meanwhile, the school district’s leadership is suffering one melt-down after another.

Sandwich is starting to sound more like Salem’s Lot.

Some Questions for Superintendent Canfield

While Superintendent Richard Canfield mails home surveys to parents of kids who left the district, it appears that another 25% of his freshman class is desperately seeking enrollment at Sturgis.  We’re not going to ask him why they’re leaving until he finishes his survey process, assuming there are any students left in the school by then.

1. Have you disciplined any of the adults who were in charge of the SHS locker room on the day of the alleged assault by Ty McGrath?

2. Who called the police that day?  Was it school staff or a student?  If it was the staff, what is the protocol for escalating an assault from an in-school matter to a police matter?

3. In the past year, how many locker room assaults have resulted in the police being called?

4. Have any students been sexually assaulted in the locker rooms? 

5. Have Sandwich athletic teams continued to engage in hazing or rites of passage such as Andover High School’s homoerotic “ookie cookie” game?

6. Why don’t you re-boot your athletic programs by removing the athletic director and team coaches?

7. Have any parties in the alleged McGrath assault filed lawsuits against the school district yet?
8. What steps have you taken to ensure that further locker room assaults do not happen at Sandwich High School?

Read the previous SHS editorial here.

Knights of Mayhem in Sandwich

Judge throws out confession, endangering case

Sandwich Police blow an Open and Shut Case

One thing’s for sure – Sandwich High School senior Ty McGrath has a good lawyer.  He needed one and he got one.

We saw this last week when Barnstable District Court Judge W. James O’Neill threw out the alleged confession of Mr. McGrath related to his November 7^th alleged attack on a freshman in the Sandwich High School locker room.

This is America.  Every person accused of a crime has a right to a vigorous defense.  Mr. McGrath has a lawyer who is earning his fees.  Clearly the Sandwich Police made a mistake in their interrogation and damaged what might have been an open-and-shut case.

We expect the next thing we will hear is that a plea bargain has been struck because the Commonwealth doesn’t have sufficient evidence to take the case to trial.  If that happens, we hope the alleged victim’s family files a civil suit so more of the facts can be put on the record.

Judge listens to a crying adult

If the case gets plea bargained, we hope the victim’s family files a civil suit so more of the facts can be put on the record.We do, however, take exception with one remark made by Judge O’Neill, who said, “I can’t overlook the fact that he’s an 18 year old high school kid who is crying.” 

Really, Judge?  “Boo hoo!”  There are plenty of 18 year old men fighting and dying in Afghanistan right now.  In eight months or so, Mr. McGrath could be over there alongside them... “18 year old high school kid” indeed!

No one denied that the varsity football player beat up a freshman

So far no one seems to have denied that the varsity football player beat up a freshman. Indeed, comments by McGrath’s mother make it sound like her son was singled out for punishment because she rocked the boat regarding another player who might have been smoking pot prior to a football game. 

There are plenty of 18 year old men fighting and dying in Afghanistan right now.So does that mean that it’s okay for football players whose mother isn’t rocking the boat to beat up younger kids?  The twist offered by Ms. McGrath makes us wonder if these beat-downs might be part of Sandwich High School tradition.

Indeed, many of us here at Cape Cod Today grew up in high schools where the jocks got away with mayhem while the adults looked on almost benevolently.  The star athletes had a whole universe of support from the coaches, administrators and “boosters”.  Many of them committed bad behavior with impunity while lesser mortals in the student body would receive harsh punishment for the same behavior.

Penn State in Upper Cape? Something is rotten in Sandwich

Are we to infer that if Mr. McGrath’s mother wasn’t a squeaky wheel that the police wouldn’t have been called following the November 7^th incident?  If a different member of the football team had allegedly beaten a freshman would the matter have been handled internally – or perhaps ignored? Is Sandwich High reacting like Penn State in these instances?

Not a single coach or athletic director has been terminated as a result of Ms. McGrath’s complaints about joint-smoking football players or the alleged beating of a freshman.Something is rotten in the high school at Sandwich.  We thought that Superintendent Canfield – the “new sheriff in town” – was brought in to solve the problems in the Sandwich Public Schools. 

To our knowledge, not a single coach or athletic director has been terminated as a result of either Ms. McGrath’s complaints about joint-smoking football players or the alleged beating of a freshman in a poorly supervised locker room. 

Instead we today read the Sandwich Watchdog’s story about arbitrary and capricious discipline at Sandwich High Schoool.

When will Superintendent Canfield stop hiding behind surveys and take ownership of the institutional problems at Sandwich High School?

The poor superintendent’s probably afraid that if he tries to lead he’ll be shipped off to Mary-Ellen-Johnson-Land.