Kurt’s Last Lesson at McAuliffe

In case you haven’t heard, Kurt Dennis was fired today as the principal of McAuliffe for speaking up about a safety issue that he thought put his students and staff in danger.

Anger. Frustration. Disappointment for our kids.  Disbelief.  More anger.  I have a lot of emotions going through me this evening, as do a whole lot of other people in the community. 

I don’t want this post to be a negative rant about DPS though. I’m sure that is readily available on the social media platform of your choice. This blog has always been focused on the positive in and around our community because we all know there is endless negativity out there in the world already.

So if I’m not going to rant, what do I want to say about all this?

I want to focus on Kurt as a leader and his last lesson that he’s teaching the McAuliffe community through his choice to speak up when he saw something wrong.

For those of you not aware of the situation I’ll catch you with a quick summary.  After the East High shooting in March this year, it came out that some students in DPS, like the one that shot the two administrators at East, were so high risk that the DPS Administration forced the school staff to pat them down daily for guns and weapons before entering school.  Kurt was being asked to complete this same daily pat down process of a student at McAuliffe.  He first raised his concerns internally within DPS, sharing with them that he didn’t feel it was appropriate that kids this high risk come to school in person (he suggested an online program) and that he didn’t feel he or his staff were adequately trained to pat down students each morning.  When DPS denied his request to stop this practice and forced him to continue this pat down process he then decided he needed to speak up in a larger public format.  He went to Channel 9 News to shed light on this major safety issue, knowing that it may not end well for him.  (You can see that first Channel 9 story here)

For his actions above DPS fired him. (You can see the story about his firing here)

Anyone who knows Kurt or has had children go through McAuliffe over the years can tell you about the type of leader he is.  When we went to the school’s 6^th grade orientation for our oldest daughter I remember after Kurt spoke my wife and I looked at each other and whispered, “I want to go here”.  Kurt is so enthusiastic and caring and it comes through in all that he does.  Not just when he’s in the spotlight on stage either, it’s all the time.  If you ever dropped off or picked up your child from school you’d see him around picking up trash, opening the door for students, gently correcting them when they were late or not where they were supposed to be.  I once saw him gently coaxing a special needs student out of tree out in front of the school!  Even then, in a pretty ridiculous situation with a kid being very rude to him, he did it in a respectful and caring way.  He was constantly putting the kids first and modeling servant leadership.

So what’s Kurt’s last lesson at McAuliffe that we as a community can’t afford to miss?

The lesson is you do the right thing even when you know it’s going to cost you. 

If we all absorb that lesson and take the time to talk about Kurt’s example with our kids, whether they go to McAuliffe now or went 10 years ago, then Kurt’s actions and his firing will be less of a gigantic waste of a wonderful leader.

It’s not just a lesson for the kids, it’s for all of us adults too.  It’s always easier to keep your head down and not speak up….but that’s what we’re all called to do when we see something wrong.  I’m as guilty as anyone on this topic of avoiding conflict. I doubt I would have had the courage to do what Kurt did.

Kurt knew his actions were going to bring a lot of conflict to his life and a lot of problems to him as well as his family.  But his job was not to be comfortable, it was to be the leader and put the kids as well as the staff above himself. And that is exactly what he did by speaking up.

Kurt tried to raise the issue internally with DPS, giving them a chance to do the right thing and adjust their unsafe policy.  That’s what we should do when we have an issue…try to resolve it with the person involved directly if you can.  If that doesn’t work, then you raise the issue to the next level if it is to protect others in a possible risk.

In the short term, speaking up cost him his job and it puts him in the eye of a storm that I’m sure he’d rather not be in.  I imagine he was twisted up in knots making the decision to do what he did, but ultimately it was the right thing to do and he knew it.  So he acted on it.  How often do we instead just keep our head down and look the other way because acting could have negative consequences for us?

The short term pain of the situation will eventually pass for Kurt, and it will for us too in our lives when we speak up and do the right thing.  When we do the right thing we don’t have to live with the regrets of not doing what he knew to be right. If something would have happened at McAuliffe and he didn’t speak up about this safety issue Kurt could have had a lifetime of regrets.

Kurt should have been honored with a big going away party when he chose to leave McAuliffe years from now.  He shouldn’t have been fired and unceremoniously cut off from the community he built.  But if we pay attention to his last lesson, to always do what you know is right even when it costs you, there is no better way Kurt could have left the school and the community he largely built.  Through this action his legacy is cemented as a true servant leader in my mind.  

Don’t miss the last lesson and please forward it to all your friends, family, kids, neighbors etc that have been touched by Kurt’s leadership over the years. 

Kurt, thanks for all your work at McAuliffe.  You have no idea how many supporters you have in the community and we love you.