Matthew Barnebey

It was strange and odd to see thousands of teens demonstrating over a political issue. Though the issue was national, thoughts of former Superintendent Yvonne Gonzalez and the Hispanic youth that supported her after she resigned, came to mind. During my lunch break, I watched the complete press conference via channel 11 news website at my workstation.

Hispanic leaders in Dallas had their press conference, former State Rep. Domingo Garcia, his wife Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Elba Garcia, and the DISD superintendent himself, Dr. Hinojosa, of course. Seeing Mr. Garcia, even though he's been out of elected office for several years now, reminded how he was one of the main speakers leading the crowd that night outside DISD headquarters almost a decade ago when the school board voted to reject Dr. Gonzalez's resignation.

With the exception of Dr. Hinojosa, the code word from what I heard from Mr. Garcia and others was - from now on you will be under our leadership if you wish to pursue this manner if you must from US adults. Dr. Hinojosa was the only one who mentioned the U.S. Senate version of the bill doesn't include the felony proposals.

What business did truants have being in that news conference? Why in the world did the adults feel the need or desire to have teens hold banners and have not one, but several truants get up on the podium and in front of the cameras like that?

Five years later, after the fact, we've got Allen Gwinn being a spokesman for the Hispanic Community's grievances over DISD redistricting for school board districts on his web site Dallasisd.com. I wish Mr. Gwinn could focus his investigative efforts on more recent district issues, like asking what was the story behind fraud and theft at several DISD schools like Molina high, Atwell, Browne, & Holmes middle schools, and how and why a convicted felon like John Hammerle wound up not just hired as a teacher, but promoted to director of all band programs in DISD.

Did Dr. Moses know about Mr. Hammerele's criminal past when he promoted him? He can also do a follow-up on Kent Fischer's excellent DMN article (DISD board candidate keeps mum) on the only District 8 candidate, Adam Mendrano, who seems to have been picked just because of his family's political standing. I'm more qualified than that guy right now, which I admit isn't saying much.

If Mr. Gwinn wants to go historic and see some of the root causes of why things are the way they are, he needs to do some reporting on pre-Rojas administrations like Gonzalez and Woolery in the 1990's and Nolan Estes and Linus Wright in the 1970's and 1980's, and not confine himself to the days of the Rojas administration while examining the DISD in a historic perspective.

Matthew Barnebey

Editor's comments: Matthew Barnebey is currently serving our country abroad. After her resignation in disgrace, former Superintendent Yvonne Gonzales was convicted and served prison time for buying personal property (expensive home furniture) with thousands of DISD dollars.