I was wrong and the Herald got it right

September 22nd, 2010

I doubt this will satisfy the site critics who say I never admit when I’m wrong, :) but I was wrong in saying Vern Henshaw’s son’s hiring shouldn’t be investigated. Any time something like that happens it should be followed up on to ensure the proper procedure was followed and there isn’t any favoritism being engaged in. It is inappropriate. It is certainly viable that the hiring person was swayed by the “Henshaw” name knowing it was the superintendent’s son, even if he was a great interviewee.

Someone emailed me after seeing the editorial in the Herald and asked if since Kevin is conservative I was OK with potential wrongdoing. Absolutely not. When I sent out the first email, a friend emailed and told me how sharp Kevin was and that he probably was the best and I started thinking I’d over-reacted and quite honestly I didn’t have the energy to open up another issue related to ASD and I just dropped it.

Then the Herald published the article a week ago which didn’t even tell the full story and honestly, I tried to distance myself from it because I don’t have time and energy to do “one more thing.” However, that isn’t right and the situation does call for looking into.

Mike

Don’t be too hard on yourself. Anyone worth salt will realize a mortal mistake. Sadly, Understanding that we make mistakes and that those mistakes are sometimes the best teachers we will ever have, is a blessing. That is one of the great attributes of having a human brain.
Dave Duncan

And let’s also recognize that the assertion that he was nothing like his father (and thus a good, solid, constitution-oriented person) may have played into the decision, as well. We all have to remember to have faith in the principles, and to not let “practicality” talk us into compromising the key principles.

If we have faith in the principles, and follow up with actions that are consistent with them, we will always end up in a better place, in the long run. Whereas, if we cave in, and make “expedient” compromises, we hurt the effort overall.

Let’s call for an investigation of this. It could set a precedent, and make those doing the hiring that much more conscious that they are being watched, and that we will call for an investigation anytime something looks suspicious.
http://blog.oaknorton.com Oak Norton

Honestly Dave, the conservative thing was an “oh well” consideration. The thing that more influenced me was a very good friend making me think this person really got hired for the right reasons because he was very sharp. I can’t take on infinite projects and so I just backed off without thinking through the need for this to be looked at. I would love to have someone else handle this one and share the load. :)
Steve

I think this is the e-mail that Oak is referring to in this blog.

Oak,

Please say it ain’t so. The Herald editors claim you get all riled up by nepotism, but then you get less riled if it involves a good ol cant do anything wrong, right wing, Sarah Palin lovin, Christian. Do you believe that Nepotism only involves left leaning pinkos.

yours truly,

Steve

Oak and I are polar opposites in our political views, however, I have had some experience in trying to get investigations into nepotism launched. My advice, don’t waste your time. Even if the accused is guilty as charged, actually proving or even getting anyone to admit to nepotism is next to impossible. People don’t do the right things because they’re right, they do the things they can get away with until you can prove them not right.
Lewis B

It is difficult to prove nepotism in a district that has some 8,500 employees and therefore the likelihood of hiring the relative of someone is quite high. When playing the Six Degrees of Vern Henshaw, he won’t stand a chance; neither would anyone else for that matter.
Lewis B

Nepotism is okay in small business, and here I thought folks were trying to get public schools to run on a business model. Of course, I know of some instances of nepotism occurring in charter schools, but I don’t hear anyone making a stink about that.

Utah's Republic

I was wrong and the Herald got it right