Editorial: Father seeks accountability, transparency

Hunter Muckel, a father who came to the Oct. 13 school board meeting to find out about why students told him the word “Christmas” was not allowed to be said at Savage Elementary School. Nobody on the school board or the superintendent wanted to talk about it and Supt. Kudlak said he would call him later.
Muckel came back to the board at its Oct. 27 meeting. He apologized for being short with Kudlak when he called. He said he talked with the music director at Savage and stated the whole Christmas carol thing is not the problem. He said he still hasn’t got answers on what is the policy and who made that policy.
He said he didn’t care whether they sang carols or not in their upcoming concert. What he cares about is accountability and transparency. He said the principal told him they can’t have Christmas mentioned because Savage is not a religious institution, which he thought was sarcastic. She also told him they made mistakes in the past.
Muckel said history informs everything in the present and they should not be censoring. He said they should not make part of our culture taboo. Religion is rich in transforming our culture, only if we don’t censor ourselves, he said.
Muckel said the carols are one thing, and he doesn’t really care about them. What he cares about is that when something more important than this comes up, like health education, the parents will get clear information, not passing the buck from the principal to the school board and back again.