To the Editor:
There is a section of your paper called Community. It is the place where we can see how individuals impact, influence, and add to the sense of our community. We look forward to reading this section.
The MVTimes has previously reported on the hurtful actions of Andrew Vandall on June 19, 2017, and Sept. 8, 2017.
On March 11, we were startled to see Andrew Vandall lauding himself in your paper for his participation in an African community. No interview. No questions for Mr. Vandall. No one asking why a teacher had the liberty to spend two weeks with these beautiful children from Ghana. They loved him and he loved them. Do we feel good? NOT!!!
So let’s consider this from a larger perspective.
Suppose, just suppose that, say, a sexual predator wrote a piece about himself and his trip to a beauty pageant, and then afterward announced that he was heading a women’s study group to study dating. Too far-fetched?
OK, suppose one of the school shooters offered rifle range lessons for children? Ridiculous? Could never happen, because we would all see the duplicitousness of such an action.
A public school teacher admittedly removed the longstanding artwork of and by students of all ethnicities, for which he was administratively disciplined and put on leave. He pays for his own trip to Ghana for two weeks, writes about his wonderful experience, and then returns to Martha’s Vineyard to announce he is “creating a center for African studies at the high school.”
The analogies aren’t appropriate, you might say, but they are meant to have one think in a broader context. Aside from his writing in your paper that he was in error, Mr. Vandall has never spoken to the larger community that he offended, and certainly not in his subsequent self-absorbed color spread, that he ever offended anyone. His “redemption” article did not include any redemptive language, instead it blindly self-presented a teacher making an interesting road trip. No balance to the other side of this community article. We are greatly disappointed that Mr. Vandall was given a platform in your paper that in no way brought any truth or reconciliation to the many people he offended. In fact, it reopened a festering wound. Our children deserve more! We deserve more.
Stay woke, people!
Erik Blake, Marie Doubleday, William McLaurin, Gretchen Tucker Underwood
Martha’s Vineyard NAACP Ad Hoc School/Political Action Committee
I would love to know if the, “center for African studies” was a sanctioned by the administration or if it was a self appointed position. I would also love to know why the comments on the actual article never showed up.
you’re use of the word “NOT!!!” as a response to your own question is not correct. A proper use of the word would be in a situation like, “I found the comparison between Mr. Vandal and a school shooter to be well deserved. NOT!!!”