Timeout for Leadership-your one-minute leadership idea

Op-ed #26

How strong is your wall?

Fact:

 Your wall is stronger than you think.

I am sure that you are as troubled by the events of the past several weeks as I am.  It has caused me to reflect and think deeply about who we are as a society.

I was appalled and outraged by what I saw on television.  My outrage transcended the act of murdering George Floyd but outrage of those that stood by watching or looking away.

Hate is in one’s heart and I hope that over time we will be able to extinguish that flame of hate that burns in the hearts of people.  That change will take time. 

I am also outraged by the wall of silence that exists all around us.  I am convinced that wall is in every workplace.  How can we break through this wall of silence?  As we watched George Floyd take his last breath, we were able to see the blue wall of silence in action.  We will never get better as a society until we break down these walls.

This act also brought me flashing back to the Jerry Sandusky criminality at Penn State.  We were all quick to condemn that young coach who happened to witness what was going on.  We were all quick to offer opinions of what we would have done.  I am sure that the same words were spoken watching the other officers stand idly by watching George Floyd die.  We were quick to point out what we would have done.

It is easy to sit back and say all of those things.  But the walls of silence that are built up in all of our subcultures is strong.   Yes, almost unbreakable.  One will sit and watch an act and do nothing because you don’t tell on your partner.  You don’t tell on a teammate. You don’t tell on a colleague. You never break this wall of silence no matter what. You really don’t know what you would have done until you are placed in that situation.  I only hope that I would have done the right thing. These walls exist in police departments, coaching staffs, teams and in schools.  I have seen them in these environments.  You can add to this list from your own personal experience.

When I was a principal, I saw the same behavior with some of my teachers.  Although I am not talking about what we saw with Floyd or Sandusky the transgressions are still there.  Please don’t misinterpret me.  I am not trying to conflate these acts witnessed on my job with aforementioned atrocities. 

It is time that every profession, every person must tear down their own wall of silence that exists on the job.  I will use the words of President Reagan when he said to Gorbochov to tear down that wall.  I say to you now, tear down that wall at work.

That wall that protects incompetents.  The wall that protects bad acts.  That wall that protects those that are not doing their jobs.  The wall that protects evil.  I challenge each teacher to think about an act where they turned their backs to a wrongdoing when they should have stepped forward.  You were afraid perhaps of the walls generated by your union or some other peer group pressure.  You just looked away and went about your business.  When you looked away you may have saved yourself some grief, but you cheated your students, you cheated your jobs and more importantly you cheated yourself.

I recall a situation where I had to deal with where a teacher sexually abused a student for years.  The abuse only came out decades later.  I remain convinced that people knew about it when it was happenening.  Fellow teachers and administrators knew or suspected this abuse but did nothing. They turned away. Shame on all of you.

Each person must once again reach in his or her heart and do the right thing. You need to hold each other accountable.  You need to hold yourself accountable.  And when this level of personal accountability happens real change may happen.  I only hope that I see it in my lifetime.  And I have been there before where I thought we were on the precipice of real change and have been left disappointed.  I think this time is different. Let’s make sure that it is.