Something about the Thomas J. Maciulewicz Jr. case struck a chord with me.
And, before you ask, it’s not the part about theft.
It’s the way some McDowell High School Students responded — T-shirts and Facebook groups, including “My high school principle (sic) is going to prison.”
Clever.
It reminds me of my attempt at a snarky rebuke toward another authority figure behaving badly. This time, it was the Ohio University football coach, who, in December 2005, was found passed out against the steering wheel of his car, pointing the wrong way on a one-way road. He was charged with an OVI, and, to add to the embarrassment, later claimed that he had been drugged while downing margaritas at a favorite OU nightspot.
A judge rejected that defense, as did most of the embarrassed Athenians watching the production unfold.
Dozens of Facebook groups popped up afterward, including one created by a friend called “OU Students for Buying Frank Solich a Bus Pass.” The sale of “Frank the Tank” T-shirts skyrocketed. The new OU mascot even earned the name “Rufus” during a student vote. “Rufus,” as in “roofie,” as in GHB. The drug that the still-employed football coach claimed fell into his one of many drinks that night.
Administrators spread the word that it was in honor of Rufus Putnam, one of the OU founders. Sorry, guys.
At the time, I thought it an appropriate way to express a collective disappointment with the former Cornhusker coach. That is, until discussions turned to my father’s accident 10 years ago, when a 62-year-old drunk woman roared out of a parking lot down the road from our house and smashed into the driver side of his teal Sundance, sending the rearview mirror into his face.
“Drunk driving,” as a friend said, “Isn’t funny.”
She was right. Instead of seeing the football coach situation for what it was — despicable, outrageous — we laughed it off as just another punch line, just one more clever Facebook group, sandwiched between those advocating for a new Mexican restaurant and those lamenting that, “When I was your age, Pluto was a planet.”
And, here, it’s happened again.
I mean, what did people really feel when they heard that a principal stole from a school? Rage? Frustration? Disillusionment?
I guess I can’t say what an “appropriate” response to the McDowell debacle would have been.
I’m just pretty sure it should not have been laughter.
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