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In the Waiting Room


Okay, we’ve had a few days to let this settle. Let’s do the numbers. Oh, and about the numbers…


 

Commedian Don McMillan, Nerdy Statistics 


In the case of Oakland Mills High School being displaced from the schedule of most urgent repairs, I want to talk about three things today. 

1. I am completely unimpressed by folks filling up the comments section here or anywhere else on social media with graphs and charts and lists. Sure, you’ve got twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one. That’s impressive, I guess.

But:

  • How was your information gathered? 
  • What did you prioritize? 
  • What did you omit? 
  • How are you framing it?

Remember that old saying about “lies, damned lies, and statistics”? When someone comes along and says, “This is a really complicated subject so I have gathered all the information for you so you don’t have to go to the trouble” it makes sense for you to use your critical thinking skills to analyze the predigested content.

(See video above.)

As to the new ranking system used by the Board of Education, I have no idea how that information was gathered or synthesized. To say I am puzzled is an understatement. I don’t think it is unfair to say that it bears further scrutiny. 

2. The main point of my letter to the Board and my post the other day was about something more harmful than charts, graphs, and lists. 

What I am truly alarmed by is the recent trend to target Oakland Mills as The Problem which is standing in the way of other schools getting their fair share. Almost daily I see theories advanced which demonize our schools, characterize them as undeserving, denigrate our community, and seem determined to paint us with the brush of malfeasance.

As OMHS gets closer and closer to shamefully delayed renovations, community attitudes towards the capital improvement process have morphed from supporting one’s own school to attacking the perceived “front runner.”

This campaign to discredit Oakland Mills goes back more than a year, probably several. It has nothing to do with any collection of data. 

When people have convinced themselves that the solution to all their problems is to get someone else out of the way, then they stop seeing their responsibility as advocating for the needs of their own school.
The goal becomes harming others. 

We have seen this before, during redistricting, and it is ugly. 

Community members were doxxed when their recommendations angered certain neighborhoods. Board of Education members received personal threats and some were harassed at their homes.

That is why I included this sentence in my letter: 

This is a dangerous shift and one which I hope you will address outright. 

So far none of the public officials I wrote to have addressed this.

I maintain - - though (obviously) I cannot prove this - - that this smear campaign would not have been dampened in any way should the ranking system had turned out differently. Because the anger at Oakland Mills is not data-driven. It is driven purely by their being in the way.

Last but not least…

3. Comments. This is my blog. I get to moderate the comments section. If you don’t like that, don’t comment. These are the boundaries:
  • I encourage discussion in the comments section but I have no patience for trolling, or really any kind of nastiness. Warning: my family is off limits.Transgressors will be banned.
  • No personal attacks or threatening language towards other commenters.
  • Eating up all the oxygen in the room will get you a warning, at the very least.
About that last one: there is a difference between making your case and taking up all the space. Some people don’t understand that. I absolutely do make room for a variety of opinions but I am not obligated to let someone hijack my comments section as their own personal soapbox. 

If you would like your own personal soapbox: start your own blog. Better yet, write it for fourteen years, build up a following, and watch with amazement when other folks come and hijack your comments section. The good news?  You will be in charge of that comment section.











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  1. Julia A. McCreadyNovember 13, 2025 at 4:23 AM

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