Rumson Fair Haven Parents and Teachers Civilly Disagreed

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I’ve covered board of education meetings where feelings ran high and emotions ran even higher. I’ve seen parents throw books at board members; ignore rules, disregard time constraints. I’ve seen groups screaming outside a meeting room, teens ignore rules and clamor to be heard.
In more than five decades of covering public meetings for hometown newspapers, I’ve seen a lot.
Then I covered that Rumson Fair Haven Regional School Board of Education meeting where frightened parents were seeking an orderly way to make it possible for teachers to teach while not forcing their children to read what the parents thought was offensive. Emotions ran high with teachers as well; they felt their integrity was being challenged. Parents felt they were right, after all, their children, their decisions. Teachers felt they were right, their classrooms, their study plans.
Students who had never been to a board meeting before came to see how the adults were going to handle the situation. The board members knew it could be a contentious meeting; hardly anybody ever attends board meetings, and now there were hundreds. Their superintendent and administrative staff were there, ready to respond whenever needed. The president laid down the ground rules, all spelled out in board policy. The crowd was anxious to start. 
That’s when this meeting became so different from so many I’ve seen in the past.
 A parent spoke against the book policy.
At the end, she thanked the board and the audience and sat down. The audience applauded. All of them. Those with her opinion, and those against.
Someone for ‘the other side’ spoke, thanked the board and audience and sat down. The audience applauded. All of them. Those sharing the opinion, those opposed.
A speaker was in the middle of a sentence when her time was up. She stopped talking, nodded assent, and sat down. The audience applauded.
And so it went. Speaker after speaker. 
In the middle of one parent opposing the school policy, the mike went dead and the lights went out. A transformer in town had been hit. But nobody knew that. For all any cynic knew, it could have been a plot to end the meeting, to aggravate the parents. I’ve seen it happen before.
But nobody thought that. The speaker at the podium laughed, and stayed. The superintendent got the news on the cause and the time to repair it. Then he urged everyone to stay; move closer to the front to hear better. But stay. We want to know what you’re thinking.
They all stayed. Every one of them. They moved closer, the meeting continued, absent lighting and mike, orderly, informative, politely. Applause. No grumbling, no derision. Just nice, quiet, orderly, polite people letting the powers to be know how they felt about a serious situation impacting their lives.
Those teenagers, the interested, intelligent students who came to learn, were rejuvenated. They felt their opinions would be worth something. They stood up, one by one, approached the podium, and gave their views. They sat down, and you could see they were pleased. They had participated.
The final chapter to Cal and Death and the Maiden is still to be written; probably by next month.
Regardless, that Board meeting was something else. It was an outward expression of polite, courteous, concerned, intelligent, healthy interaction between factions that had an honest disagreement.
It was an inspiration to me…and lessons so well taught by parents and teachers to the generation of teens for whom it was all about.
Muriel J. Smith
Contributing Writer, Two River Times
Freehold