Skip to main content

The Return of the Mysterious Mr. D.

Yesterday, while I contemplating Lincoln and unity, an older post of mine was on fire with belated debate in the comments section. One commenter, going by the name of "Thomas Diller" was systematically questioning everything I had posted and picking away at other commenters as well. As the name was not familiar to me, I attempted to do some research.

I can't find any accounts for a local Thomas Diller. Not Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, no Google hits establishing this as a real person. But, I do find Mr. Diller in comments sections of Howard Public Ed and The 53, Bill Woodcock's blog--in 2012. I started asking around and it turns out he frequented the comments section of Patch around the same time, along with a companion named Robert Rhodes.

In all cases he is addressing school system issues defending management and attacking anyone who is a challenge to management. He's left perfectly nasty diatribes against Board Member Cindy Vailancourt on Howard Public Ed. And now, in another election year, he's back.

Of course he is.

I guess Mr. Diller, being new to this blog, doesn't know that I strongly encourage people to post under their own names. And it does seem highly unlikely, given the evidence, that this is is his (?) real name. The evidence points to someone in Central Office or perhaps even on the Board of Education itself. Traveling incognito in the comments sections during election years.

Yesterday, while I talked about unity and Lincoln, someone was hard at work showing us what we're up against. Be on the lookout for people like this who attempt to sway public opinion against anyone who seeks to create a better board of education. I may have outed one of them, but I'm sure there are others waiting to replace him.

A reminder:

I encourage discussion in the comments section but I have no patience for trolling, or really any kind of nastiness. It is my preference that people post under their own names. I stand by my word every time I post, and so should you, if you choose to engage here.


 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...

F ³: We Are Not Entitled

  A college student went missing. His family and friends were distraught. The community was encouraged to be on the lookout and spread the word.  Days passed.  They must have been agonizing days for those who cared about the missing student. Thoughts that foul play had been involved cannot have been far from their thoughts.  Then, at last, the student was found. Alive. The news was shared with the public.  So. Much. Relief. A family had been reunited with their child. Even though we know that life is complicated, I think it is okay to accept this as a happy ending and leave it at that.  But the world of social media says no. For every expression of joy at the news came questions and even judgement. It became clear to me that some folks felt entitled to an explanation. They wanted the backstory. It’s as though they felt that, by enlisting the help of the public on social media, the authorities now owed them all the details. Television dramas often weave curr...

Separate and Unequal

  Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in  broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not.  It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...