School Committee Two Days in a Row

"Lowell school superintendent seeks criminal charges over committee member's alleged threats."

That is the way The Lowell Sun put it in the headline.  It was an attention grabber.  The key paragraph from Ms Jennifer Myers' article was:

Superintendent of Schools Chris Scott is seeking criminal charges against School Committee member Regina Faticanti for allegedly making threatening comments to her during a telephone conversation on the morning of April 22.

But, the next paragraph was just as interesting:

Police Superintendent Kenneth Lavallee said the allegations were investigated by the department's Criminal Investigations Division, which subsequently filed a complaint in Lowell District Court requesting a hearing before a clerk magistrate on the charge of threatening to commit a crime.

A friend of mine, now in El Paso, Texas, has a quote that applies here (TV financial commentator, Jim Cramer used it back in ought seven:  "If you're going to shoot at the king, you're going to have to kill him."  Jonah Goldberg had a collection of these lines in a post on 4 April of last year.  My favorite was:

The oldest variation that I know of comes from Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza (1545–1592), attributed with saying, "He who draws his sword against the prince needs to throw away his scabbard."

That would seem to be where we are.

I once wrote a Boston Globe OpEd writer (long departed from the paper) that I thought he was wrong about the movie Primary Colors being a clinker—since opening day down on Reiser Street was SRO.  He wrote back and pointed out that politics in Lowell is a "blood sport."  He was right about the movie and about Lowell.

If Ms Faticanti survives the court case and gets reelected, it will likely go poorly for Superintent Scott.  It follows that our children in public schools will be collateral damage*, at least until we get a new Superintendent.  On the other hand, if Superintendent Scott takes down Ms Faticanti in the election, and for purposes of this discussion the court case is really about influencing the election, then she is Queen of the May.

Lynne Lupien, over at Left in Lowell, commented early this morning.  From her posting it would seem Ms Lupia would just as soon see Ms Faticanti resign and thus avoid this being part of the budget discussions.  That said, if the Superintent achieves her aim, this action will hang over the School Committee, and the City Council, for some time.

UPDATE:  Corrected the spelling of Lynne Lupien's name.  She is not Gene Lupia, who I knew in a different incarnation.

Regards  —  Cliff

* collateral damage — Unintentional or incidental injury or damage to persons or objects that would not be lawful military targets in the circumstances ruling at the time.  Such damage is not unlawful so long as it is not excessive in light of the overall military advantage anticipated from the attack.  (JP 3-60)