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Jewish World Review Nov. 23, 1999 /13 Kislev, 5760

Bob Greene

Bob Greene
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Who'll say 'I'm sorry' to the other Decatur students?


http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- AMID ALL THE SHOUTS and bluster during the Jesse Jackson-led school showdown in Decatur, three quiet sentences ring more poignant than all the loud threats and accusations.

Those three sentences -- they were reported by the Chicago's Tribune's Flynn McRoberts at the end of a story on the tensions in Decatur -- were spoken by a 16-year-old high school junior named Robert Ryan. The boy, like all of Decatur's 3,000 high school students, had not attended a full day of classes in more than a week.

"I've been missing too much school," Ryan said. "I'm starting to forget everything. My main problem is U.S. history -- the Constitution and stuff like that."

His voice is a reminder that there are interested parties other than Rev. Jackson, than the expelled students who took part in the stadium fight, than the school board, than the county prosecutor. To watch and read the news reports, you'd think the people just listed were the only ones with a stake.

But what of the students in Decatur who had nothing to do with the fight -- students who perhaps weren't even at the football game? What about the students who simply want to go to school and try to learn? Students who--imagine this--may have been at the library the night of the stadium fight?

You'd think, from all the coverage of Jackson's showdown, that those students -- the students who are not a part of the anger, who just go to school -- are irrelevant. But an argument can be made that they have more relevance than anyone -- that it is their rights, more than anyone else's, that have been grievously violated.

They were kept out of school for far too long -- because of something they had nothing to do with. And now that they are back, their entire school year has been defined by this. This won't be the year they remember for a teacher who helped them think about something in a new way, or for a great book they read that moved them, or for a game the basketball team won. This will forever be the year of the stadium fight, and all that followed.

"I've been missing too much school," Robert Ryan said. "I'm starting to forget everything." Perhaps Rev. Jackson truly believes that the school board and the people of Decatur owe an apology to the young men who brawled in the stands -- but a strong case can be made that Rev. Jackson owes a heartfelt apology to Robert Ryan, and the students like him who wanted to go to school, and could not, and were worried that they were falling behind in their work.

Not that anyone should hold their breath waiting for Jackson to apologize. He descended into foolishness when he was confronted with the videotape of the fight -- a tape he had never seen and, presumably, was unaware of -- and, instead of admitting that he had been misled by those who had characterized the brawl in mild terms, began embarrassing himself by trying to explain away the violence. No worse than a hockey game, he said; the real violence is being committed by the authorities who are charging the brawlers with crimes, he said.

Jackson reached his zenith of absurdity late last week when -- this is perfect, in our current America -- he sued the school district on behalf of the young men who fought in the stadium, asking in court that each expelled student be given $5 million. Why? Because, according to Jackson's lawsuit, when the school board rebutted his public allegations about what was being done to the expelled students by pointing out certain facts about some of the students' poor attendance records and third-year-freshman status, the school administrators did so "for the expressed purpose of putting out their point of view in the controversy surrounding the expulsion of the students."

Thus, Jackson's suit contended, each of the students who fought during the football game should be given $5 million.

To use an apt analogy: You've got to pick your fights. Jackson picked a loser -- and instead of escalating his threats when the videotape surfaced, he should have sternly and honestly said to those who brought him to town: You owe me, and your city, an apology.

You may think the two-year expulsions were excessive -- maybe they were. But whomever you blame in all of this, there is one point you cannot dispute:

The students who only wanted to go to school -- to be students -- were guilty of nothing. This is not their fault. Who will say "I'm sorry" to them?



JWR contributor Bob Greene is a novelist and columnist. Send your comments to him by clicking here.

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