John Dodig: prank “intended to cause disturbance.” WN file photoUPDATE The principal of Westport’s Staples High School, in a frustration-filled letter to parents, today defended Friday’s arrest of a senior girl and her father for bringing a pony to school as a senior prank and said their intent “was to cause a disturbance.”
If Sarah Friedson, 17, and her father, Ronald, 50, had worked with the school’s environmental clubs to promote energy savings and wanted to park her pony on campus, that would have been fine, said John Dodig in the two-page letter.
“This was not their intent,” he said. “The intent was to cause a disturbance. The intent was for hundreds of students to file out of the school to watch the pony parade around campus. The intent was to put administrators in a position that would make them look silly.”
Friedson, responding to the Dodig letter, said that the principal had his facts wrong. He said they were not there to cause a disturbance, there was not a large crowd, and it was not a dangerous situation.
“I will sue them on defamation of character and violation of our civil rights,” he said.
Dodig, who was not present for the Friday morning incident (see WestportNow June 6, 2008), said administrators “got wind on Thursday that something was going to happen early Friday morning.”
He added: “Not knowing what it was and knowing that I didn’t want to arrive at school to find graffiti all over the front of the building, I informed my head of maintenance who informed the police department.
“I even hired one of my security men to spend the night in his car to protect our $80 million building. We didn’t know that the horse was what these kids were waiting for.”
Dodig said he resented that Assistant Principal Karyn Morgan had to be placed in a position to make a spur of the moment decision.
“No one has spent more time with these seniors than Mrs. Morgan other than you, their parents,” he said.
“I resent that she had to be placed in a position with other administrative colleagues to make a decision on the spur of the moment in the rain about what to do and then have people laugh at her/them.”
Dodig cited a “headline” that said “Staples administrators suspend senior girl for bringing her pony on campus to call attention (to) the high price of gas. She will not attend graduation.”
He added: “The headline smacks of ridicule. The headline writer didn’t know that she knew months ago that she was not graduating and, if your believe me, this was NOT about promoting anything other than causing mayhem for us to deal with.”
He said the Friedsons were not out to promote energy savings.
“Their intent was NOT to bring awareness to global warming or the high price of gas even though that is the way it had been reported in the media,” the principal said.
Dodig said he was amused when someone put a portable toilet on the Staples roof on a recent weekend, even though it could have caused harm to the roof membrane. (See WestportNow June 1, 2008)
“It didn’t happen so we and they were lucky,” he said. “No harm done.”
He was not amused, however, when someone subsequently made the men’s rooms toilets inoperable and stopped them up with human feces. “Another senior prank that wasn’t so funny,” he said.
Dodig ended his letter by saying: “I am not looking for e-mails of support or disapproval. I am simply trying to give you the context in which this incident took place in order to provide another point of view.
“Waiting for the proverbial shoe to fall each June takes some of the joy out of the job. Seeing our seniors leave is a serious business for us. It is an emotional experience for those of us who have worked with them for four years.
“We feel some of what you feel when you think of your children leaving home to start a new chapter in their lives. Yes, my administrators and I do take it personally.”
Last year, nine Staples students were suspended as a result of a senior prank that went wrong, but all were later permitted to attend graduation activities. (See WestportNow June 11, 2007)
John you have done a great job during your time at Staples as have your administrators. But you all dropped the ball here. Staples has a long history of Senior pranks, some good some questionable and they are all stories we alumni tell years later. The horse incident is one of the milder and one of the most “politically correct” pranks. To not let this young lady walk at graduation is deplorable. I suggest you reconsider and say
Dear Mr. Dodig – While I do understand that you don’t want to encourage any kind of pranks that might disturb the peace at Staples, this was mild at best and certainly did not endanger anyone there. If I recall correctly, when I was there in the 70’s (with Sarah
I am going to save my ranting for more serious issues. I already ranted enough in the previous article.
Despite his argument, I echo the last two comments. Whereas, this is the end of the school year. Maybe if this happened during the year I could see where punishment is fit.
However, this is merely choking tradition and light hearted fun. Just think about it.
I agree with all of these comments. The school has over reacted. They should learn to appoligies when they do something wrong as well.
Like they stated they new from before -it was a senior prank -and on the last day of school!
It was a pony…ha ha….not distruction of property
I don’t think that the issue of whether Sarah was going to graduate with her class (or have to take some summer school to obtain the required credits) should have any bearing on the question of the appropriateness of the school’s response. She is still a member of the Senior Class, and even if she is one of those unfortunate souls that has to take summer school, that fact should have no bearing, at all, on whether it was appropriate to arrest her for what amounts to a harmless “senior prank” where there was no property damage, no disparagement of the School administrators, and no janitorial time and expense required to address the effects of the activity (aside from what the little pony may have left behind). What does that justification stand for – it’s ok to arrest her because she isn’t a straight A student?
Pranks are pranks, and as others have said, they have run the gamut over the years at Staples. Has anyone gotten arrested besides Sarah over the years for a class prank? I don’t know, but I happen to think that pony-walks and porta-potties on the roof demonstrate that the Class of 08 is doing just fine, and they seem to understand the proper “good clean fun” spirit of a “class prank.” Arrest kids who deface the school or cause property damage; but not this girl.
And as for the “she was warned, that’s why she got herself arrested” justification for arresting Sarah – I can assure you that the school administration warns students not to engage in pranks, not to attend senior skip day activities, etc. fiathfully every school year around this time – as you would expect the school would. I am quite sure the guys (I assume guys) who lofted the porta potty on the roof (nice!) were doing something that was against the express wishes of the school administration too. And yet there are no arrest warrants out for those pranksters.
Lighten up Francis.
It’s really no one’s business whether Sarah was going to graduate in June or not. That’s private information that should not be shared except by the student. I can’t tell from his letter whether the police were called by Mr. Dodig or the head of maintenance, but either way I assume that the principle could have chosen not to have the girl and her father arrested. It’s the arrests that put this over the top for me. Having the police involved in school affairs does not make the administration seem more powerful; it makes them look weak and frightened. Additionally, taking the administration’s beef with this family public in a letter to the school community and the local online newspaper is inappropriate. Publicly accusing them of intending to cause “mayhem for us to deal with” is also inappropriate. That conversation should be a private one between the school and the family. Defend your decisions all you want in any forum, but leave details about the student out of the discussion. Believe me, I have enormous respect for the Staples administration. They do a great job, a truly amazing job all year long, and I can imaging how trying it must be to balance everything at the end of the year. Perhaps Mr. Dodig is unaware of just how strong the Senior Prank tradition is here. I doubt this was meant as a hostile act intended to upset him and cause what he calls “mayhem” (kind of a strong word for kids standing around looking at a pony), it is what it is; a prank. This was so mild! I say drop the charges and work things out with the family in private. Leave the police and the lawyers out of it. And toughen up! Next year will probably be even worse! (That’s a joke, not a warning.)
Just to hi-jack the thread a bit:
Julie O
First off this is completely ridiculous!! I see that the administration has not changed one bit since I attended Staples. YOU’RE GOING TO GIVE SOMEONE A CRIMINAL RECORD FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIFE BECAUSE THEY BROUGHT A PONY ON SCHOOL GROUNDS?! Sarah let me fill you in on something….DON’T let the administration of staples bring you down!! There is a bigger world outside of Westport where all these petty problems aren’t an issue. I mean seriously what is the lesson here?? Lets not forget that we were all kids once. As far as the deans are concerned….“The intent was to put administrators in a position that would make them look silly.
Everyone keeps missing the graduation point. Sarah WAS NOT going to graduate anyway. She didn’t have the credits and was going to have to attend summer school. Please read the Principal’s letter regarding this. Sarah and her family knew this months ago, according to the letter.
While I’m on everyone else’s side on this issue and think that the punishment was too severe, Sarah failed to meet all of the requirements to graduate with her class. She should not be allowed to walk if she still needed to go to summer school to make up credits.
Does anyone else see the irony in the fact the father drove his car behind (or next to or whatever) the pony which was supposedly an effort to raise awareness of high gas prices and energy consumption? Didn’t that, in fact, cause a multitude of others to remain idling, consuming gas and causing greenhouse gasses to enter the air?
They were asked to leave the school grounds and they did not. Period.
Sarah was not going to graduate with her class anyway, the arrest did not cause this fact.
Was there an overreaction? Possibly. Are all the facts being heard? Probably NOT.
Thank you Sandra. In addition, (according to the June 6 article on Westportnow.com) Lt. Thomas P. Casimiro II, public information officer, said
If I may I wouldlike to provide an outsiders opinion of this farce. I found Principal Dodig’s letter to Staples HS parents, shrill, hysterical and bordering on the paranoid. Any humiliation he and his staff are receiving is self induced. Is there no body, ex. the school board, that can reign him in? His public discusssion of Sarah Friedson’s class status is certainly a breach of confidentiality, and his characteriization of the motives of the Friedsons in the absence of evidence are potentially libelous. Mr. Dodig refects badly on the City of Westport. Will someone reasonable please stop this debacle
Stan, you are wrong. This is not a debacle and Mr. Dodig does not reflect badly on the city of Westport. This is a minor incident. Staples is a great school in large part because of Mr. Dodig. Since Britney Spears stopped acting out, the national press has been forced to seize on any small silly incident and pretend that it’s news. I don’t know where you are from, but this is a Westport matter, and in the larger context of the town, it’s an interesting conversation but not a huge deal. If this is the only thing you know about this town, either learn more about the place, or quit bashing our high school principle.
Westport deserves a lot of bashing. But our negatives may be deceiving, due to the fact it is so ‘nice’ here, and ‘great to live hear’….and what not. …I grew up here, what a wonderful environment; landscape…
It is too bad the things that may put this town to shame are the very things many people take pride in.
Isn’t it ironic?
The law is the law. Done. “Breach of peace” is a very broad term. The school used its discretion best it could. Lines need to be drawn, sometimes the seemingly innocent get caught up in that. Anyone knows that.
Nancy, I have read the very positive compliments about Mr. Dodig’s contributions to Staples HS, but I am judging him based on his defense of Asst. Principal Morgan’s actions, and his written comments attacking the Friedsons. In the greater scheme of things this incident, and what is following from it, may not be important to you and other Westport citizens, but I take seriously an overreaction which could have potentially led to a felony conviction, and the lifelong consequences of that conviction, for a 17 year old girl. I am sure that Westport is a fine community, but I iterate what at worst was a minor prank, that would have been be largely forgotten if treated as such, has become potentially much more serious. It is time for the Staples Administration to back off, and if not, time for the School Board of your community to “pony up” and “rein in” Mr. Dodig. Besides, what is so strange about riding a horse to school? It’s an everyday occurence here in Montana. Mr. Dodig has made Westport nationally recognized, but I don’t think that is necessarily a positive in this case. My best to everyone inolved.
Nancy , staples is a great school, but the administration was WAY out of line here. “Sarah
Vito and Stan, if you look back at my earlier comments you’ll see that I agree completely with both of you about the initial incident and the school’s reaction. I think the trend in a lot of places is to treat students as potential criminals and future inmates and I would hate to see that happen here. I went to Staples in the ‘70s and we walked out over Vietnam and Kent State and several other times. We were serious about politics, but there was plenty of mischief too. The police were never called. Of course, back then there was a sanctioned smoking area and if we had a free period we could leave campus. The administration had a different attitude about the students then. Maybe more respectful? Maybe higher expectations, not academic, but civic? Definitely more relaxed and not so controlling. But Westport is a totally different town now than back then and I assume that the Board of Ed is taking its cues from the people who live here today. Stan, I agree we should say neigh to criminalizing pranks. It’s terrible to saddle a kid with a criminal record. But hay, the way fuel prices are going, we might soon be following Montana’s lead and riding horses to school. And Vito, I have no idea who cares about B. Spears.
This is from the Hartford Courant a little while ago. Food for thought for the school admin (and another potential BoE lawsuit):
http://www.courant.com/news/education/hcu-burlingtonprincipal-0613,0,5005235.story
Courant.com
Free Speech Principal Suspended
By ARIELLE LEVIN BECKER
The Hartford Courant
3:06 PM EDT, June 13, 2008
The high school principal named in a federal free speech lawsuit over a Burlington student’s blog post has been suspended for two days for disclosing private information about the student in an e-mail to a member of the public, documents obtained by the Courant show.
Lewis S. Mills High School Princial Karissa Niehoff was also ordered to attend workshops or training sessions on student privacy law. Superintendent of Schools Alan Beitman, who placed Niehoff on unpaid administrative leave, also urged Niehoff to write a formal apology to the student, Avery Doninger, and her family.
Niehoff wrote about “warnings” Doninger had received about her behavior in an e-mail to a Wisconsin man who took issue with the school’s handling of Doninger’s case. In letter to Niehoff dated June 9, Beitman wrote that “the sharing of any student related concerns or issues should never have occurred.”
Doninger’s mother, Lauren, filed a lawsuit against Niehoff and then-Region 10 Superintendent of Schools Paula Schwartz last summer after Avery was prohibited from serving as senior class secretary.
Niehoff barred Doninger from running for the position, which she later won through write-in votes, after administrators discovered a blog post in which Doninger described central office administrators as “douchebags.”
Avery had written the blog after a dispute about the school’s Jamfest, a battle of the bands that Doninger helped organize. In her post, she urged readers to write or call Schwartz “to piss her off more.”
In the lawsuit, Doninger argued that punishing Avery for a blog post she wrote off school grounds violated her right to free speech.
Doninger’s attorney sought an injunction to allow Avery to serve as class secretary and speak at graduation, but a federal district court judge rejected the request, saying Doninger’s attorney had not shown substantial likelihood of challenging the constitutionality of her punishment. An appeals court agreed last month, ruling that Doninger could be disciplined for her blog post because it posed a risk of “substantial disruption” to the school.
The case is expected to go to trial.
After the appeals court ruling, a Wisconsin man named Mike Morris, who read about the case in the New York Post, e-mailed Lewis S. Mills staff members and asked “if it has ever dawned on any of you that your retaliatory action against Avery Doninger constitutes an ironic, prima facie evidence of the truth of her characterization?”
Niehoff replied that not all the news he read was correct, then described previous issues with Doninger.
“Prior to this issue, Avery had repeatedly been warned by her class advisor to stop calling the student council advisor and members names during junior class meetings,” she wrote.
“Thus, this was not the first incident of its kind with Avery.”
Niehoff also wrote that “Avery had received multiple warnings about her behaviors prior to the Jamfest issue.”
In a letter to Niehoff dated June 9, Beitman, who was not superintendent during the Jamfest or blog controversies, wrote that he had “serious concerns regarding what I consider to be an uncharacteristic lapse in judgment.”
Lauren Doninger, who said she had read Avery’s entire school record, said she had never been made aware of any of the issues Niehoff described. “No one has ever called me, expressed concern to me, in any way advised me that there was any problem with Avery being derogatory, vulgar, calling anybody names,” she said. “The comments on report cards and so forth have never been anything but glowing.”
Lauren Doninger praised Beitman for his response, and said it stood in contrast to how her daughter’s case had been handled by administrators in the past.
She called the situation ironic, noting the parallels between what Avery and Niehoff did.
“[Niehoff] made ill-considered remarks, she sent it out into cyberspace, they made their way back to the public,” she said. “Avery’s remark didn’t break federal law.”
Lauren Doninger said she wished Niehoff’s two-day suspension occurred over graduation, so Niehoff would not be allowed to speak at graduation.
Niehoff did not return a phone message seeking comment.
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