This Will Go Down on Your Permanent Record	by Buck Quigley

According to a January 27 article published in the Buffalo News, Buffalo Public Schools Superintendent Dr. James Williams and McKinley High School Principal Crystal Barton have closed ranks around issues involving the dismissal of Michelle Stiles, a volunteer girls basketball coach. In the fallout from that questionable move, a high school senior and member of the basketball team named Jayvonna Kincannon was suspended after she dared to speak up for her dismissed coach. The controversy stems from the fallout of having witnessed James Daye, the boys basketball coach at McKinley, leaving the house where a female student at the school was staying.

That incident seemed to have been explained away, except for the subsequent dismissal of Stiles and the outrage of her players, who looked up to her as an all-around positive force in their lives.

It appears Kincannon crossed a line when she made a cell phone call while on school grounds. Ironically, she may have gotten away with this infraction had she not been calling the Buffalo Board of Education to request an opportunity to report what she viewed as an injustice against her former coach. Instead of being granted an opportunity to speak at the following day’s board meeting, the person who took her call blew her in to Barton, according to published reports. The next day Barton suspended Kincannon and kicked her off the girls basketball team for “failing to act like a leader.”

In all, Kincannon appears to be serving a seven-week suspension from school in the middle of her senior year as a result of her behavior.

In a follow-up article on January 30, the News reported that Kincannon had other marks on her record that include truancy and wearing a “hoodie” sweatshirt. For coming into the public spotlight, in other words, Kincannon’s reputation is now part of the story. In the same article it is alleged by other members of the girls basketball team that principal Barton called them to her office and told them, among other things, that: “Whatever is in the paper is all a lie.” The article also describes an impromptu assembly in the McKinley High School Auditorium wherein Dr. Williams is alleged to have advised the student body to “rip up the Sunday paper because it’s all a lie.”

Maybe Williams and Barton would say the same about the following stories that appeared in the Buffalo News over the years:

■ June 20, 2000

2 PRINCIPALS REBUKED OVER EUROPE TRIP—Principal Crystal Barton is criticized for joining the McKinley H.S. chorus on a European trip as a chaperone where her husband, Robert Barton, then principal of Kensington H.S, joined her. Although students had to pay their portion of the $44,253 nine-day trip, Crystal went for free and her husband chipped in $717 at the last minute without first getting approval from his boss. Their combined salaries at the time were $198,844.

(On June 21, 2000, this story was also picked up by the Associated Press and circulated worldwide.)

■ June 27, 2000

A PRINCIPAL EMBARRASSMENT—News editorial criticizing the Barton’s free trip. Then School Board President Paul Buchanan is quoted asking, “‘In what other job in America can you earn $100,000, on Friday fax your administrator that you’re going to Europe’ and then leave the following Monday without waiting to get an OK?”

• June 27, 2000

PRINCIPAL SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF HERSELF—A letter in the Viewpoints section from a parent whose daughter was a member of the McKinley chorus, but did not travel to Europe. Nevertheless, the girl sold candy to help raise money for her classmates who were going on the trip. The parents also paid admission to the chorus’ spring recital, to raise money for the European excursion.

• August 29, 2000

DAYE’S STAY AT NICHOLS MAY TURN OUT TO BE A SHORT ONE—Then McKinley coach Willie “Hutch” Jones claims he was forced out of his coaching job at McKinley by Barton, to make room for James Daye—who is embroiled in the current controversy.

The recent story in the News also quoted Williams as telling the McKinley students that they “have the best principal and the best school.” But the relationship doesn’t always appear to have been quite so smooth:

■ November 8, 2005

PRINCIPALS TARGET WILLIAMS; UNION WANTS PROBE OF RACIAL COMMENTS—Buffalo Public School principals union calls for an investigation into “despicable” comments by Williams for criticizing African-American principals while complimenting their white colleagues. Of Williams’ behavior, Barton is quoted as saying that a student would be suspended for behaving as Williams did.

• November 19, 2005

SCHOOL PRINCIPALS’ UNION LEADER FILES COMPLAINT AGAINST WILLIAMS—Barton, as president of the principals’ union, charges Williams with “bullying and intimidation” through name-calling, racially and sexually offensive remarks and the use of profanity.

By December 7, 2005, this story made it onto a national stage in Education Week where Williams is also quoted as saying that in hiring teachers, “we’re not getting the number-one draft picks. We’re not even getting free agents.” Barton, for her part, is quoted as saying Williams was “unprofessional” in linking principals’ behavior to race.

Since neither Williams nor Barton have commented directly on the most recent story published in the News, all we are left with are the facts we can glean from their permanent records. Many of these facts seem more serious than wearing a hoodie to school.