About a week ago, I got a phone call from a McComb School District supporter, who noted that the newspaper had recently reported the dismissal of an administrative assistant.
If that was news, the caller asked, why was the decision at South Pike not to keep several administrators, including three principals, not being reported?
The main reason, I replied, was that this call was the first we heard about it. Give the South Pike school board credit: I don’t know what their state academic rating is, but when it comes to keeping secrets, the trustees get an A.
Of course, an A for secrecy is usually an F for openness and transparency. Truthfully, I enjoy the challenge of obtaining and publishing information that people don’t want the public to have.
It took a week, but our South Pike reporter got multiple confirmations that, when the school board approved contracts for the 2026-27 year, three principals, the athletic director and the special education director were not on the list of those who received employment offers.
We posted a story about it on our website late Thursday afternoon. We made a correction about 90 minutes later — a fourth principal listed as non-renewed actually is resigning to take another job. And then I went home for the night.
But Friday morning, managing editor Matt Williamson showed me a Facebook post that someone had told him about. It said, “It’s just a matter of time before someone gets hurt at the Enterprise-Journal. SMH.”
If anybody was SMH — shaking my head — it was me. What was this about?
I figured it had something to do with the coverage of the two teenagers who were briefly charged in the Feb. 15 shooting death of a 14-year-old in McComb. But apparently not.
As a precaution, we reported the post to the sheriff’s office. They asked if we wanted a deputy to come take a statement. I declined. If somebody is really mad at the newspaper, they know where we are. This sounded more like somebody spouting off than actually threatening trouble.
I was in Matt’s office when he looked at the profiles of people who had responded to the "just a matter of time" post. One of them had also posted that identifying people who get fired — his words, not mine — should be illegal.
Wow, we said. These posts have to be about our story on the South Pike employees.
I’ll say this as nicely as possible: Are you joking? You cannot be serious.
Apparently you think we should have written something like: “Five administrators are not going to keep their jobs for next school year. But instead of telling you which ones, and trying to learn why they’re not being retained, we are not going to report anything else, especially who they are, because we don’t want to be mean. And besides, it’s just not that big of a deal.”
It’s simply comical that all this stuff came from Facebook, where so many thrive on insulting comments and insist that any rumor fitting their world view is true, no matter what the facts or evidence say.
So, here’s my reply to Je M’appelle Drell, who predicted it’s a matter of time before someone at the paper gets hurt: First, I know French, so thanks, I will call you Drell.
Second, I didn’t take your post seriously, but it did unnerve some of my co-workers. I would appreciate you not doing that.
Third, we’re going to keep reporting the news. And it is news when a public school, funded by tax dollars, decides not to rehire five of its top employees at once.
Finally, if anyone wishes to discuss our coverage with me, call the office or stop in. We’re on Oliver Emmerich Drive.
You also can find me at Golden Corral for lunch every Wednesday. And I go into Wal-Mart some too, so if you see an older white guy there trying to decide how much Mountain Dew to put in his cart, that will be me.
