Report by Paula Antolini, June 18, 2020, 1:50PM EDT
One of the most historical high school graduation ceremonies ever held in Bethel, and the Superintendent of Bethel Public Schools, Dr. Christine Carver, decides to ban ALL news media from covering it.
So, sorry folks, you won’t be getting a report from us, or from the News Times either, Carver said. We only found out about this today in a routine text for press credentials, no announcement was made, no notification, nothing in the Superintendent’s newsletter. Surprise! Not very professional, especially since we cover the graduation every year, and it is outdoors this year with social distancing.
buy Nexium online Buy Nexium no prescription cheap Nexium generic
Carver cited “safety” as a reason for banning media. (Sound familiar? RE: First Selectman Matthew Knickerbocker banning the budget vote and also going against his own words on social distancing or approving or attending large gatherings.)
This time it is regarding Carver’s news media ban during the Bethel High School (BHS) 2020 Graduation event that takes place at 8:30 p.m. tonight, that includes 226 students and cars, one car per family. Also there are 137 administrators and teachers on staff, according to the school website for a total of 363 people or more, possibly attending this event, not counting police officers. But to allow ONE more journalist, is not “safe,” according to Carver, even though we said we would not be standing close to anyone. We never got that far as to discuss specifics for media. The answer was just a flat NO.
Dr. Carver said she was “over the 100 limit” on invites of people who would be outside of the cars and she had to turn away “staff, families, extended families and divorced families that want more than one car” who wanted to attend. “I just can’t accommodate that and so we can’t keep making exceptions,” Carver stated. “I just have a public health issue thrown on my lap that I have no control over,” Carver said.
buy Plavix online Buy Plavix no prescription cheap Plavix generic
NOT included on the invite list as remotely important, as we mentioned, the press. Censorship? Or is the press simply regarded as an “exception”? An afterthought? Is the press not a company that informs the public about important events, with photos and video too? Does she disregard Freedom of the Press as stated in the Constitution? Why ban the press? Oh right. “Safety.”
We are, of course, not arguing social distancing orders, in fact we adhere to that, but seriously, banning the press? What’s up with that? For many years we have photographed the graduations, indoors, and we are sure there was a limit on attendees then. It is now selective enforcement, favoritism, taking advantage of the COVID-19 quarantine, and many other thoughts, to ban press for no good reason.
*****
It all began when the Bethel Advocate contacted Dr. Carver via text today at 12:08 p.m., in a routine message just to clarify credentials we might need to enter the graduation tonight at the school entrance. We never imagined she’d ban all news media coverage. Censorship?
After texting back and forth with Dr. Carver, without a break, for over an hour, she finally telephoned us and continued the one-sided discussion as to why she would not allow the press at the 2020 Bethel High School graduation.
“I want you to be there, I want everybody to be there,” Carver stated, “If I invite you I have to invite all the press, that’s not just one person, that’s 5 or 6.” When we asked her to name the other 5 media companies she could only name two, and became agitated and said, “Let me finish, because you always are trying to twist my words.”
She said she had to get “special permission” from the health department, to have “this type of ceremony,” and they had to not only follow executive orders, saying exactly who would attend, but she had to follow Department of Education guidelines too. She said she, “Just got them today.” Carver said it read, “No additional people should be allowed into the ceremony.” So now this is left open to her interpretation as to the definition of “additional people”?
Only when questioned, Carver admitted Dan DeBlois will be photographing the event, who seems to do the school photos. We are not sure if he is retired or not. We know there was a retirement party for him several years ago, but he seemed to remain at the school capturing photos ever since.
Carver’s school photographer is not the same as news media coverage by a professional news photographer. It is not the eyes and ears for the public. She said she would send us photos if we wanted. Censorship? Just unacceptable folks. This has NOTHING to do with safety and more to do with selective enforcement.
This is not the first incident with Carver. She made it very difficult for us to obtain simple numbers of minority staff employees, when the topic became of interest by readers recently, and they asked us to do the story. We ended up having to send Carver an FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request, and even then, on her eventual reply, she told us the school does not collect that information, yet then she points us to a website in her final paragraph of her FOIA reply, that she said, “may be useful” and it had all the numbers we needed (report coming shortly). What is going on? Such unprofessional adolescent behavior, and being given the runaround from a high end school official leading the education of children in this community. This is unacceptable.
We contacted some sources that protect journalists from this sort of treatment, regarding Carver’s actions, and we heard back almost immediately from Daniel Jeon, Legal Fellow, Reporter’s Committee for Freedom of the Press, from Washington, DC, who said in part, “If it was in retaliation for your past reporting, it would be more constitutionally problematic.” Since Carver thinks we always “twist” her words, we might have an issue here.
*****
Also, apparently, as we stated, Dr. Carver did not have the exact or correct information about the most recent governor’s executive orders, and refused to even quote which order she was following, and hung up on us as we attempted to discuss this. “I’m done, I’m done,” were her parting words. Click. Not very becoming behavior of a School Superintendent, and banning the press is not exactly teaching students by example, about Freedom of the Press.
Here are the Executive Orders pertaining to large gatherings and school graduations, in part:
7XX No. 2:
“Safety Rules for Drive-in Graduations. Drive-in graduation ceremonies at
which all attendees remain in vehicles except for graduates briefly leaving
vehicles to receive diplomas may be held with no limitations on capacity if
either: (a) vehicle windows remain closed or (b) vehicles remain at least six feet apart and all attendees wear masks or cloth face coverings. The Commissioner of Education may issue mandatory guidance for the safe conduct of such ceremonies.“
7TT No. 2c:
“Effective immediately, the 49-person limit on religious, spiritual and worship gatherings is raised for indoor gatherings to 25% of capacity of the indoor space or a maximum of 100 people, whichever is smaller, and to 150 people for outdoor gatherings, provided in each case that appropriate safety and social distancing measures shall be employed. For any such gathering where participants remain in vehicles with windows closed and at least six (6) feet of space between vehicles, there shall no numerical attendance limit, provided all other laws are complied with.”
Carver is preaching safety and then she is saying she is following executive orders when she is not even aware of what the latest orders are?
If there were “no limitations on capacity” if attendees were in cars, then why would she not allow families to attend in 2 cars? There are 6 parking lots on the Bethel Schools campus, plenty to double the amount of car allowed, that Carver is quoting. Carver said she had close to “100” individuals outside cars, yet 1 to 5 news media individuals could not fit? Something is very wrong here and I am calling it out.
*****
“The highest and primary obligation of ethical journalism is to serve the public,” states the Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalism (SPJ). an organization who also states, “Members of the Society of Professional Journalists believe that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. Ethical journalism strives to ensure the free exchange of information that is accurate, fair and thorough. An ethical journalist acts with integrity.”
“The free exchange of information” should be prevalent, and also taught in, public schools, and administrators and teachers should lead by example. Not so in our community it seems. What example are our school and town officials setting if they use executive orders to deny Freedom of the Press, and deny our vote, when they have the power to freely allow Constitutional laws to be adhered to?
We are talking about the inappropriate actions of Superintendent of Bethel Public Schools, Dr. Christine Carver, and First Selectman Matthew Knickerbocker. This needs to be addressed and actions taken to correct the stifling of the press, no matter what the upcoming assignment is, that needs to be covered. We also need to prevent the alleged illegal denial of citizens’ vote, in order to push a budget through.
Time for change is right.
###