JOSEPH N. BELL -- The Bell Curve

I have watched the public flagellation of Jim Ferryman in the Pilot

over the past few weeks with a growing sense of both concern and guilt.

Concern because I felt rather like the high-rise apartment dweller

leaning out his window and watching someone being beat up on the street

below. Guilt because I didn’t go down and say, “Enough.”

So, belatedly in the pursuit of balance, I called Jim Ferryman. No

problem reaching him. He picked up the phone, himself, and I arranged a

meeting with Jim and his wife, Mary, on Monday. There were no

preconditions or restrictions. I had met Ferryman only once before,

several years ago, to discuss school board matters, and I was aware of

his considerable public service. That was the extent of my previous

contact with him.

There were two concerns that especially troubled me in all the

verbiage that followed Ferryman’s DUI arrest. First was the absurd notion

-- often rooted, it seemed to me, in a disapproval of drinking, itself --

that defending Ferryman somehow implied a lack of proper condemnation of

drunk driving. And, second, the insistence of most of his critics that

his lifetime of public service was irrelevant in considering this one

case of antisocial behavior -- even despite the fact that our current

president of the United States has admitted to a similar offense.

The facts of the case are not in dispute, and we didn’t spend a lot of

time on them. Ferryman returned from a business meeting in late afternoon

to hook up with a friend who wanted to show off his new boat. Ferryman

drank too much while they talked over old times, then had a minor

collision on the way home with a car moving into his lane when the street

narrowed. The other driver called the police, and Ferryman was arrested

for DUI.

Ferryman does not attempt to soften any of these facts or to deny his

culpability. What he does attempt to do is separate these facts from his

ability to continue to perform his school board job at the same high

level he has demonstrated over the past seven years.

“I expect to benefit from consequences of my act that will probably

include suspension of my license, probation and counseling,” he said.

“But I also believe very strongly that none of this has anything to do

with my work on the school board and that I can continue to serve as a

positive role model by facing squarely up to what I did.”

Mary Ferryman, who has been a teacher at Costa Mesa’s Sonoma

Elementary School for more than 30 years, put it this way: “I’m in the

business of teaching kids who make mistakes every day. If I gave up on

each kid who makes a mistake, I wouldn’t be a teacher. Instead, I let

them learn from their mistakes. It seems to me that Jim should have the

same opportunity, and the community shouldn’t be deprived of the fine

work he is doing on the school board.”

According to Ferryman, strongly corroborated by his wife, “I have been

deluged with messages from teachers, parents, school administrators and

other local citizens telling me to hang in. I haven’t received one hate

call or letter. Not one. One of the few positive things about an

experience like this is learning how many really good friends we have.”

What personal steps has he taken in the aftermath of his DUI?

“Well, I’ve quit drinking,” said Ferryman. “I haven’t had a drink

since this happened, and I don’t miss it. And I couldn’t possibly feel

more remorseful than I do. But I also can’t let this consume me. I’m not

a politician. I have no aspirations in that direction. My only desire is

to help my community. That’s what my parents taught me when I was growing

up in Ohio, and it’s what I have lived by.”

He said that the only time he thought seriously about resigning -- “my

worst moment” -- was when a story in the Pilot made reference to an

incident several years earlier when his older son was busted for coming

to a high school dance after drinking. “Digging this up was both

irrelevant and unfair,” he said, “and I thought that if they’re going to

go after my family, I might have to quit.

“One of the more painful results of the soap opera approach after my

accident is how much it deters good people who would like to run for

public office but want their private lives to remain private. Too often

this limits political candidates to people with an ax to grind or an

agenda.”

Ferryman also wanted to counter what he saw as repeated

misrepresentations of his position on zero tolerance. “I never opposed

zero tolerance,” he said. “All I ever wanted to do was add a constructive

program that would help the kids rather than summarily dumping them into

another school.”

He concluded: “I have a little over a year left in my term on the

school board. I never had any intention of running again. Eight years in

this job is long enough. But in the seven years I’ve served, we -- as a

committed group -- have done a tremendous job in turning this district

around. I’ll stand on that record, and I’d like very much to finish the

job I helped to start. All I want is a fair shot.”

* JOSEPH N. BELL is a resident of Santa Ana Heights. His column

appears Thursdays.