Naperville Central welcomes new principal

The headline from today's Naperville Sun started with "The plagiarism scandal behind him, ..."

The plagiarism scandal is far from behind anyone at SD 203. That includes the students, the teachers, the administrators, and the school board. This scandal will not be behind them until Caudill is permanently gone, a new principal has been hired, and I suspect most, if not all, of the school board who had a hand in how this scandal was handled are replaced. Then and only then will this scandal truly be behind anyone.

If the school board thinks for one minute that this will not be one of the issues that comes back to haunt them during at least the next two elections they are badly mistaken. Hopefully the Naperville Sun and the readers and writers of this forum will continue to remind the school board loudly and clearly what the ethical standards and expectations of educators and community leaders are in Naperville with a strong and compelling message at the ballot box.

The old saying "It isn't over until the fat lady has sung" is quite appropriate to this current school board situation. So far she hasn't even started her warm up. The school board may wish we would forget about what happened; we won't. The school board may like to declare this is all over and behind us; it isn't. The school board may think voters have a short memory; we don't.

As for Bill Wiesbrook let's all give him our support and best wishes. He is in the unenviable position of being saddled with temporarily trying to restore honor, dignity, credibility, and accountability within an institution that has floundered. His mission is not made any easier by the lack of leadership exhibited by the school board and administration as to their expectations on moral and ethical issues. In fact the administration has clearly demonstrated a double standard between their expectations of students vs. their expectations of teachers and principals. To date, the school board and administration have failed to revise or clarified the existing plagiarism policy which is a further black eye on their stewardship over this controversy. Nor have they clearly and compellingly stated their current expectations of all SD employees and students in any way that has been communicated to the community and taxpayers at large. Basically, what that means is that not much has changed other than the reassignment of one employee. With that as a backdrop and setting the tone for a new school year won't make Bill Wiesbrook's job any easier.

Wish Bill the best. Maybe he has the right stuff. Maybe he can grow some wings and really fly. Maybe he can show the administration and school board that it isn't impossible to walk the walk when it comes to being an exemplary role model to our children, to teach children right from wrong, to demonstrate reciprocal respect for students without a double standard, and to teach them what honor, dignity, and citizenship is really all about. Good luck, Bill Wiesbrook we are trusting you to make a difference with our children five days a week.

The world and the people in it are not perfect and make mistakes. Principal Caudill admitted to his mistake and explained how it came to happen. It was not an intentional mistake. He did not set out to plagarize, he had intended to get the permission of the former student but was not able to in time. Knowing his character, I know he would not plagarize on purpose. It was an unfortunate set of circumstances that led to this happening. We fully Support Principal Caudill. There could not be a better principal. We are sorry he is gone. We need to let things go. If it was blatant plagarism, and not plagarism brought about by unfortunate circumstances, then yes I would support those who are still wanting more disciplinary action. Those of us who have not made mistakes or been put in a situation such as this, not by choice, can yes "throw the first stone."

Our kids and we will miss him, Thank you Principal Caudill for all you have done. You will always be Principal Caudill to us.

I still can't understand people's logic on oh well he made a mistake & didn't mean it! First, he KNOWS what plagiarism is & if you are saying he didn't...what does that mean? That is worse! Next, would you accept that from a doctor if he made a mistake on you...he didn't mean it...it was not intentional. H now! What about a teacher there that says I didn't intentionally mean to touch your daughter there? It just happened! The know it is wrong & there should be consequences & the same level it would be in other areas or what they tell the students. This has been the complaint on the priest not being held accountable for abuse etc. Every unethical and criminal behavior should have consequences & those consequences should be fairly applied. Just giving him another job in the district is reinforcement!

As for the headline...I too went OMG I hope not! You mean they discussed this all with the students & they are all clear what the principal & the student did were wrong & what not to do? I doubt on the first day they were able to do this & just one day is not enough to accomplish this anyway. Perhaps they could say it was not the #1 thing on their mind today. They may have been excited about new friends, new classes, the hope of learning etc but don't say it is behind you already that really concerns me! What if the Virgina TEch students came back the first day & the headline said that? Geez! I don't know anything in life that is "behind you" that quickly!

I can't believe this is still an issue.

One Who Values: You aren't really trying to equate a foolish bit of plagarism with sexual abuse and a horrific massacre at VTech, are you?

I don't understand the mindset of people who want to mete out some kind of figurative capital punishment on Caudill for what he did; nor do I understand people who use this to continually flog D203. Caudill did something stupid. He was caught. He was punished. He was humiliated. Now let's move on.

"What if the Virgina TEch students came back the first day & the headline said that? Geez! I don't know anything in life that is "behind you" that quickly!"

You cant be equating the horrible death of a number of students to a plagiarism case.

To those who are codependent and rationalizing that what Caudill consciously, knowingly, and willingly did was ok; please know that there are a greater number of people in this community who disagree.

We disagreed on this issue yesterday, we disagree today, and we will continue to disagree until the school board takes an ethical and moral stand on this issue that reflects the views of the majority of people in Naperville.

Personally I do not want Caudill any where near Naperville children. He was trusted and he deliberately, consciously, and with forethought betrayed community trust. He shamed himself, his profession, and our school district. Personally I do not want anyone who would trivialize the seriousness of what Caudill did anywhere near Naperville children either.

All or our children are constantly bombarded with advertising, news, movies, games, etc that challenge the morals and values we, as parents, try to instill in them to grow up to become good citizens, adults, and parents. They will pass on to their own children the lessons they are learning today. We don't have many opportunities to make sure what our children learn is right. We can not tell children to do one thing and then do something else ourselves as adults... does do as I say, not as I do come to mind? At the same time we have to minimize the opportunities that our children will learn these important lessons about life incorrectly. And we have every right to have scorn and disdain towards those who are not united in providing and being unwavering role models to our children.

"please know that there are a greater number of people in this community who disagree."

prove it. i believe the the greater number of people happen think Caudill was a great leader and would love to have him back.

Lets all remember that Jim Caudil came forward and took responsibility for his actions. While there are some that want to get out the noose, most people see this as a tragedy that ended the distinguished career of a man who was committed to the students in his care.

If you go back and look at the Sun's poll results regarding his was appropriate, 30% felt it was too severe and only 20% wanted a more severe response.

From a prior post of mine,

You should know there were 22-24 speakers in favor of Jim keeping his position that spoke at the board meeting Monday. No one spoke for his removal. A petition with 400 plus names was offered supporting Jim. In my conversations with SB members I heard that the communications received was overwhelmingly in favor of his keeping his job also.

I think it's pretty clear that there is a large number of people that feel quite strongly about Jim, and wanted him to stay. He has been tremendously well liked and respected over the years and the outpouring showed that.

Personally, I think Leis and the SB took managed to "thread the needle" and took the correct action, and I take no joy in saying that. But what's done is done, and I'm glad that Jim will be around to help with the Central rebuilding effort, and I think continuing, and expanding his mentoring and mediation programs will be a real asset to D203 students. I think that's the best outcome we can achieve. I know Jim well enough to know he will continue to put his heart and soul into his efforts.

I for one wish Jim well, and believe that his misfortune will be a "real world" learning experience for Centrals students.

Let us all wish Bill Wiesbrook, Central's staff, and the students all the best this year during the transition.

Simple: He cheated, he paid a price. End of story. As long as Bill isn't just keeping teh seat warm for Caudill to come back, everything is fine.

Good luck Bill!

Oops!

One statement in my 1:21 pm post above was missing part of the sentence. It should have said the following;

If you go back and look at the Sun's poll results, something like 50% believed the districts response was appropriate, 30% felt it was too severe and only 20% wanted a more severe response.

Good gosh.

I'm surprised some of you folks aren't stirring the hot tar and plucking the feathers from a rooster. Anonymous at 10:29 makes it sound as if Caudill was brewing a batch of meth in his office. You don't want anyone to "trivialize" what he did? Neither do I; nor, however, do I want to sensationalize it to the point you have. You seem to be calling for his scalp. Why? He was humiliated and he lost his plum post. What do you want the School Board to do, lock him up?

You also say that you have "every right to have scorn and disdain towards those who are not united in providing and being unwavering role models to our children." That's the problem, kiddo. When you have scorn and disdain for those with whom you disagree, then that leads to discord and strife. Why the fighting words?

why do we have to pay the salary for two principles.as a tax payer in 203 i say fire one and save us some money.

I loved yesteday's "quote of the day" in the Naperville Sun from Bill Wiesbrook the new interim principal at Naperville Central High School.... "So I think most of us, most of this community, is thinking about the things that are to come and not what happened at the end of last year."

"... is thinking..."? Did I read that right?

One principal who plagiarized followed by another who butchers the English language while participating in an official press interview. Please excuse me if I am underwhelmed by the level of professionalism that is capable of being demonstrated by principals at this high school.

There used to be a time when educators took their profession and their position in the community seriously. This was also a time when educators were personally committed to being exemplary role models to students. I guess these same lessons about the expectations and responsibilities of being a professional and community leader were not learned as well by our current crop of principals and, unfortunately, it shows.

Hmmm,

50% thought the district response was appropriate, 30% felt it was too severe, and 20% wanted a more severe response.

So was this even close to meeting the test for a statistically valid survey? Or did all of the Caudill supporters email each other and stack the results in this online poll?

If you ask me, results like this in the center of a Republican and conservative area suggests either that the results reflect the efforts of a noisy minority or all of these so-called conservative Republicans who live around us are in fact closet liberals.

Anonymous,

Wow, I never realized the fate of our children's education rested on the grammatical construction of a single sentence, uttered by one man.

Actually, his usage of the singular noun, "community", caused hm to use "is". It's the plural phrase "most of us" that proceeds it that makes it grate when you read it, and in your mind makes you want to see "are" instead. For example this is perfectly correct grammatically: "....most of this community is thinking about the things that...."

But regardless, isn't going on a tear about the decline and fall of our school system based on this more than a little overkill? Or is that over-kill? I'm really bad with hyphens.