A suicide's lessons, 20 years later
What ever happened to face-to-face conversation?
May the local newspaper never make a comeback.
In 1999, Weston Public Schools, a top-ranked school system nationally, hired a new Superintendent. We students didn’t really care.
That is, until she acted unlike any previous Superintendent.
Janet Shaner came to our sports games, attended academic classes and even knew students’ first and last names. We only saw the previous Superintendent at graduations. Dr. Shaner was in our hallways everyday.
The town’s basketball court sat right next to her office. I often played there late into the night. Her car was always there later than mine. Rumor had it that she kept a blow-up mattress under her desk, in case she worked all night.
She even once wrote me a letter in the mail, citing my dedication to basketball as something I should be proud of.
She committed suicide in 2001, just short of two years on the job. The New York Times covered the story. At her previous job, people accused her of ethical wrongdoing, and it followed her to Weston. She left her former district with tons of supporters.
Weston parents then decided that they’d write endless opinion pieces to the Weston Forum, where they attacked Dr. Shaner’s character, based on what happened in a district they knew nothing about.
I do not blame her suicide on the writers, but ‘too much free time’ is a forgiving way to describe these people.
Since this horrible event, I’ve watched incidents like these increase.
Well-meaning coaches, who show tough love to kids whose parents can’t handle it, are common victims of uniformed parent mobs. The letters to the editor are replaced by phone calls to Athletic Directors or emails to other upset parents, urging for a group-led coup.
No wonder there are youth coaching shortages and referee shortages.