Ironically, school board policy teaches the wrong lesson

Writers love irony. Reporters and editors, at times, are less fond of it.

Some heads-up reporting by Evergreen Newspapers’ Emile Hallez Williams has revealed that the Jeffco school board has a policy prohibiting individual board members from talking to the press.

The policy has been in place for 10 years, and the policy itself — ironically enough — appears to be responsible for no one knowing why it was so difficult to get a comment from these folks.

Board members say the policy is necessary to ensure a sense of cohesiveness and professionalism. The more cynical among us might wonder if it isn’t necessary to muzzle dissent and let elected officials avoid answering for controversial decisions.

My guess is that even non-cynical constituents who don’t give a hoot about irony would occasionally like to hear their representative defend a controversial board vote or speak out on critical issues.

After all, that’s how voters make decisions in a democracy — we evaluate the positions taken by our elected representatives and then decide whether to elect them again.

This little revelation has left some of us wondering if we should have elected the current slate at all.