Questions for Landes, Fort Defiance

By Nelson Graves
Published: June 26, 2008

Recent statements made by an Augusta County high school principal and a county resident have a number of us scratching our heads. One statement referred to the abrupt dismissal of one of Virginia’s most successful wrestling coaches and the other was spoken by an attendee at the last Augusta County economic “workshop” meeting.
Fort Defiance High School wrestling coach Terry Waters owns an outstanding record and, according to his coaching competitors, runs a great program. Since his inexplicable firing, many Augusta County parents and one of his former student athletes during a meeting with Fort Defiance Principal Larry Landes wondered why Waters has been dismissed (“Outraged parents seek answers from Fort principal,” June 16).
Landes told parents the reason for the firing was confidential and that he was prohibited from further discussion of the matter. Even though his response was reasonable, Landes apparently felt Waters’ firing shouldn’t be a matter of outside concern.
Landes also made it known publicly that the decision to remove Waters was his alone.
What’s most disturbing is that Landes said a letter would be sent to Waters explaining his dismissal within two weeks. Why the delay? If the problem was one of taking indecent, improper or abusive liberties by a teacher or coach, charges would have been filed.
It’s normal and accepted for this type of personnel issue to have the reason for termination up front, not after the fact. Could it be that the decision to dismiss Waters was previously made and now the reasons for it must be created?
The hope here is that Waters’ firing wasn’t due to personality or racial issues.
Due to challenges from being deaf, Waters, who is black, may have rubbed some of his colleagues the wrong way. Maybe he spoke too loudly or may have misunderstood words spoken to him.
Fort Defiance is one of the whitest high schools in the county. The overwhelming majority of its administrators, teachers, coaches and students are white. And being black is a challenge by itself.
The second statement occurred at one of three Augusta County ‘workshops’. In a nutshell, the workshops (all presentations were the same) were held to disseminate information to county residents and to gather the residents’ feedback and desires.
For instance, what types of businesses, jobs and opportunities, do Augusta County residents want going forward?
A consultant said the county’s former economic mainstay – agriculture, industry and an abundance of an able workforce – has changed. I’ll discuss only the workforce aspect.
The workforce has changed. Our children, after graduating from high school are leaving the area at extremely high rates. And those who drop out before graduation stay but aren’t as productive. The graduates leave for college or higher paying jobs, with benefits, while the dropouts end up in low paying, non-skilled jobs with no benefits.
The consultant asked for and received suggestions to remedy the loss of the county’s young people. Several attendees offered suggestions ranging from recruiting more medium sized industries to steering potential dropouts toward trade schools.
Then the most amazing suggestion: Asked what could be done to keep our children here, a lady said, “Let them go.” Needless to say, the consultant and most of the rest of us were speechless but the consultant quickly recovered. He asked for more suggestions.
I have a question for Landes and the “Let them go” responder. Will Waters’ replacement be white and able to hear? And for the lady willing to allow our young to leave, who pays for and provides future goods and services?
Nelson Graves writes a weekly column for The News Virginian and he’s Western Virginia director of the Virginia Minority Supplier Development Council. E-mail him at .