Jeane and I are both proud graduates of Welch Public Schools. It was a great school system to grow up in, and it gave me many of the opportunities that got me where I am today. We are members of the Welch Public Schools enrichment foundation. We support our alma mater with our time and money.
Unfortunately, recent events centering on Welch School Board President Dennis McCord have embarrassed the school system and placed administrators, teachers, and coaches at risk of physical and verbal violence from Mr. McCord.
After seeing the details of the latest embarrassing incident spelled out on the opinion pages of local newspapers, I am happy to hear that a group of local Welch (Craig County) citizens have organized in efforts of seating a grand jury to look into McCord’s behavior. They have retained an excellent attorney from Vinita named Jot Hartley.
I encourage my many friends and readers to visit www.savewelchschools.org and read up on the details. There is a grassroots commitment to see this effort through. If you can spare any amount, please consider contributing financially. The website has details on the “How You Can Help” page. I have contributed, and I encourage you to do the same. whatever amount you can spare.
13 comments
Comment by Cindy York on May 30, 2008 at 1:23 PM
I don’t agree one bit. My daughter has been verbally abused and neglected by a coach in that school and I have been to a board meeting and met with the coach, principle, superindent and the board to not even one person has done a thing about it and its been going on since September. I have tapes from meetings and phone conversations with the individuals showing that they can’t tell the truth and have raised their voices to me. As a parent you can only take so much from people that don’t listen so I can see why he blew up. But I wasn’t there so I don’t know first hand what happened. But if anyone or anybody needs kicked out of that school start with the basketball coach and work your way up. Keep the kids safe. The coach has no business being around kids. Anyone wants to contact me feel free I have all the proof that they all need to be gone. Pretty sad when all the board members allow abuse to go on in the school and never investigate it.
Comment by Tyson Wynn on May 30, 2008 at 5:37 PM
Ms. York:
I obviously disagree with you. Additionally, you are making some very serious charges that I certainly hope you can back up. You have now publicly made the statement that:
If you truly believe that, you should call the police. If not, you should disavow your previous statements and apologize as publicly.
If you, indeed, have the evidence you state you do, I would love to hear it. I’ll make you this promise. I’ll meet you at a neutral location of our mutual agreement to listen to the recordings you have. If you give me access to the recordings, I will digitize them and post them all on this site (if my attorney advises me that it was legal for you to have recorded them in the first place). We’ll let people see and hear for themselves.
Comment by Jeremy Rogers on May 30, 2008 at 6:49 PM
That first comment was the most unbelievable nonsense i have ever heard. I am a coach and have had direct and indirect dealings with this man. As i coach i know how school board members at times abuse their power and seldom have the welfare of the student or the school in mind. This is not the first time he has done this. My dad who has spent his entire life in Welch, and is well respected got the same treatment and nothing was done, it is about time. A school board member should be professional, and is representative of what all the staff and students should be like. But we all know that is not the case. I like Tyson Wynn graduated from Welch and would like to know this alleged “proof” you have saying that the coach has no business being around kids. He is right if so you should show the proof and do something about it. I am sure it just involves playing time, again something a school board should not be worrying about anyway. All in know is that Welch used to be a school where people wanted to be. Now it is turning into somewhere that many people would not send their kids because a lack of action and quality leadership.
Comment by Tyson Wynn on May 30, 2008 at 8:54 PM
Hey Jeremy, nice to see you have come by.
I also wanted to let you and your family know that I was not aware until now about the details of the incident in 2006. I’m sorry your family had to go through that, and I hope the situation now is resolved properly. It won’t make up for what your folks had to go through, but I hope they do know that I for one believe they deserved better.
As for Ms. York? So far, no reply.
Comment by Shelby on May 31, 2008 at 4:30 AM
FYI Bub….This story made it to the front page of Friday’s Tulsa World.
Comment by Tyson Wynn on May 31, 2008 at 6:08 AM
Yep. http://www.savewelchschools.com has links and PDFs of all the coverage.
Comment by Cindy York on June 2, 2008 at 6:38 AM
Just to let you know we don’t have access to a computer on the weekends. Rick said that since we don’t know you that we will not hand over tapes and those tapes are evidence and our law firm has them as of this moment. And it will be released to the public in due time along with the rest of the documents. We are not the only parents that have had problems for the same issues. One parent has her daughter in treatment because of certain people in the school. As for the recordings the principle and the superintendent and the coach knew that were being recorded. And as for the coach, Rick had a run in with the coach at the grocery store where the coach cussed and threatened Rick and there is witnesses to it and the sheriff was notified. The superintendent and principle were aware of the it and they didn’t do anything about it. And at basketball games why were parents of the other team yelling at our coach for the way he was yelling at the girls. And that was brought to the superintendent and principle attention and they were aware of the problem. And plus our problems with the coach doesn’t have anything to do with play time it has to do with the way our daughter was treated during class and with the superintendent and principle our problem is the fact it started in September nothing was ever done about our complaints and we feel that it was swepted under the rug and the problem continued until May. We will not leave this alone until the problem has been resolved. Our issues have nothing to do with the trival issues over so called conduct at a game our concerns are the safety and welfare of the children. And we have notified Sandy Garretts office, DHS and it does not stop there. Rick said that he can be contacted and he would be more than happy to converse with anyone over this issue and feel free to bring the superintendent, principle and the Goodwin.
Comment by Tyson Wynn on June 2, 2008 at 11:43 AM
Well, if you have reported things to the sheriff and have retained legal counsel, I am not sure what your point is by commenting on my site. If you can’t produce the recordings you have then you shouldn’t reference them all the time.
As for the “run in” at the grocery store, are you meaning to tell me that Rick (is this a live-in boyfriend?) calmly and coolly tried to have a conversation with the coach and the coach responded with threats and cursing?
I’ll be honest, unless Rick has adopted your child, I don’t understand where he even comes into play here. FERPA probably precludes the school from dealing with him on your child’s behalf.
If the school’s so bad, why not transfer?
Comment by Josh Schertz on June 9, 2008 at 12:05 PM
I am a teacher and coach at Welch High School. I am only on here to defend the school I love to be a part of. I grew up and went to Chetopa, student taught at Oswego, and got my first job at Sedan, all in Kansas. I have been an employee of Welch schools for the last 6 years. This is a great town and school system. We rank with the best of Oklahoma in test scores. Our enrollment I believe topped out to the highest it has ever been the last year or two. That is a testament to our school system. I am looking forward to my children attending Welch schools and being a part of it.
Comment by Concerned on June 18, 2008 at 8:39 PM
This is really getting out of hand. I have been in this area most of my life (small towns). Have you ever been to a ballgame and sat up in the stands? I dont believe I have ever been to one where there isnt a parent who doesnt yell and scream or curse at the coaches and refs. And most of all when a team is winning by a large score it is only fair to play all team members instead of running up the score even more. I have heard parents speak out I outta kick your A– to a coach. It happens everywhere! I am not saying it is right but it is everywhere. But, really why did they not play the little girl? Has anyone answered that question? And, for anyone to bring up her confidential behavior that only support personnel should know about is wrong. Where has simple respect gone? It is true she should not have stomped on her uniform but she is 15 and upset not to mention humiliated because shes the only one not playing,,,come on at 15 you are only thinking for the minute. I am sure she doesnt hate Welch it was just a quick decision. And, as for the bat everyone who has ever played softball taps their bat on the home plate,,,heck they teach coach pitch kids to do this. I do not think it is right for this committee to go around making elderly people feel like they have to sign the petition,,,and yes this has been done as I spoke to one gentleman West of Welch,,,and he was ready to sign until he called his family and found out what he was really getting ready to sign. In closing all I have to say is what happened to our kids just playing sports and activities and having FUN!!!! We are making it harder and harder for them to have fun,,,,its like telling kids they cant hold hands at ballgames,,,so what do you do go into the stands and tell the adults they cant hold hands. Lets just let our kids be kids!!!!!
Comment by Tyson Wynn on June 19, 2008 at 12:59 AM
Your argument that Mr. McCord’s behavior should just be overlooked because he’s a parent and parents always act this way is faulty for several reasons. First, not all parents act this way. Second, even if they did it doesn’t make it right. Third, when Mr. McCord was elected to the school board, he became more than just a parent. He is vested with power and authority to affect the livelihood and careers of the administrators and coaches. He has, many allege, misused that power and authority to curry favor for his children or to exact revenge and/or intimidation if his wishes weren’t carried out. It’s plain wrong.
Next, if there is a genuine issue that needs corrected, Mr. McCord, as a school board member, was in the perfect position to deal with it properly. If untoward things were happening, why could not have Mr. McCord have convinced the other four board members that there was an issue to be dealt with?
What confidential behavior do you reference? One has no expectation of privacy when her actions are exhibited in PUBLIC. This didn’t happen behind closed doors. This was out in the wide open spaces of a ball field for everyone to see.
You ask about simple respect. I, too, wonder where it has gone. Where has the respect for one’s teammates, one’s team jersey, one’s school, and one’s position of trust gone?
Also, no one on the committee should be pressuring anyone to sign anything. They certainly have not been instructed to do so. In fact, instructions given to petition carriers very plainly state that signers must know and understand what they are signing.
Please email me with specific information about anyone who felt he was pressured. I want to pass it on to the proper folks. Understand this, the group is hopeful that many people will sign KNOWING FULL WELL WHAT THEY ARE SIGNING.
Who is making sports harder? Maybe the school board member who threatens individuals over his children’s participation time? What ever happened to letting a coach do his job and dealing with issues that might need attention through proper channels?
I submit that it is precisely the type of behavior Mr. McCord is alleged to have exhibited that is responsible for high schools sports having gotten to out of hand.
Kids should be kids, but sports and other extracurricular activities are also about teaching them how to mature. When a school board member acts like a child on the elementary school playground, it is hardly helpful to that development.
One last thought: has anyone considered that there may be other issues that the Welch school board might need to be addressing but cannot because of the recurring problems with Mr. McCord?
Comment by Tyson Wynn on June 26, 2008 at 12:09 PM
I’m issuing a new policy for comments on this post. You are, as always, free to disagree with me. However, you cannot do so anonymously. If you wish to comment, you must use a real email address (I will be verifying it) and you must post under your real name. Several of you have been submitting comments saying hateful things. I’ll approve them (hateful comments and all), but you must own up to them by using your name. That’s just the way it is. Heaven knows I don’t agree with Cindy York on much, but I do admire her for using her own name rather than anonymous posts and phone calls to make her point.
Comment by Marinda Boykin on July 20, 2008 at 6:40 AM
First off I would like to say Hi to Tyson.. I went to school at welch during my 7-8 and part of my 9th grade. I am still very good friends with so many from Welch. I also went to school with Josh Schertz who is a teacher from Welch.
Any way a few years ago I was going to move my family to Welch so they could attend school because I belive it is one of the best schools around. My son has some MEDICAL problems that the Welch school could not live up to his IEP, and that is the only reason that we did not move to Welch. I do not FAULT the school for this and I do understand it. I know a person can not belive everything you hear, so I want to thank Tyson for taking the time to get the facts, and the truth.
A friend of mine has a girl who wants to play ball for the school, but because of the way she has been treated she does not want to play or even stay in the school. I do not know all the facts of this issue just the “he said she said stuff” I do think it is sad that my friends kids are willing to leave there family to stay at someone elses home to attend a school that they can feel safe and play sports. This is there own words not mine.