The apparent dismissal of Greg Dougherty, a popular economics/’social studies has become quite something of a cause celebre in the Midstate, and will likely expose the Bibb County Board of Education to ridicule in the national, perhaps the international, media.
The apparent facts as we now have them, two days into a still-breaking story, are as follows: Greg Dougherty is a popular social studies teacher, who has served with distinction in the trenches of Central High School for nearly nine years. Mr. Dougherty and a student took part in a half time show at a recent half time show at a school basketball game. Nothing strange here, except that the two each wore an exaggerated ‘Afro-American’ wig and had smeared some kind of brown stain on their arms and face. Clearly their performance was a kind of gentle spoof of the current state of the game of basketball, which is dominated on all levels (excepting, of course, north Macon’s private schools where black students are as scarce as hen’s teeth) by Americans of African Ancestry.
At a race relations seminar recently held at the Douglass (double ess) Theatre, it was brought up that the Teacher had acted as was described above. A complaint was taken from hence to School Superintendent Sharon Patterson who ‘investigated’ the allegations and decided (alone or in collusion with others) to terminate Mr. Dougherty and gave him ten days to respond.
The teacher has decided to fight.
From here, and admittedly we do not yet have all the facts necessary to make a perfect judgment, it looks as if Sharon Patterson over-reacted, making a snap decision possibly due to pressure, real or imagined, from the Black community.
This smacks of caving-in on the part of the Superintendent and makes us wonder if she is fit for her job if she is willing to sacrifice an excellent teacher at the first hint of racial controversy. We question also the role of Dougherty’s principal and wonder whether she stood for her teacher.
Time might tell, but the BOE is Ostrich-like, hiding its head in the sand.
Let us never forget that Bibb County schools, on the average, rank near the bottom of all the systems in the Peach State AND, Georgia, by all accounts, lies near the bottom of the fifty individual states.