Parents shouldn’t have to guess what’s going on

Having cameras follow you around in high school would have been kind

of fun -- for a high school student.

It also could have given parents an idea of some of the issues

their kids deal with, even if just a small percentage.

Regardless, they won’t be coming to the campus. The school board

pleased naysayers on Feb. 4 by ending any deal with MTV -- the cable

TV channel that made its name showing music videos but has become

just as renowned for its reality and shock programming.

School board members said they decided not to sign because of

contract changes they had asked for in negotiations that weren’t

made, giving them the feeling that they didn’t have enough control.

Too late.

Some parents contended the board was not open with its intentions

and that they didn’t find out until about two weeks ago that a

contract was about to be signed. Some students said the negotiations

with MTV had been common knowledge since the fall.

The problem is, there shouldn’t be a question of when who knew

what. The school board should have been extremely vocal from the

beginning about what exactly MTV wanted and what they were hoping to

negotiate for.

And guess what? Perhaps we’ve been played. MTV has been doing this

a long time -- they know how communities work. It likely occurred to

them that the further along they got in their contracts, the less

likely the district would be to back out, not to mention the students

they could get to sign the contracts to participate.

If they were afraid that MTV wouldn’t enter negotiations unless

the public was kept out of the loop, that should have been a good

sign to the school board that the parents they were supposed to be

representing might have been what MTV feared.

Why would they fear parents? Because parents are protective of

their kids -- even at the cost of fame and money.

Next time, when all that money is dangled in front of you (albeit

for a good cause), take a good hard look at what they’re hoping for

in exchange.