Many local officials use personal Twitter accounts to post anything
from news stories to humorous accountings to advice and even personal
messages and opinions. One thing most of the Twitter accounts have in common is
that they are personal, with the handle named after the individual.
It's fairly common.
There is one glaring exception locally: The Twitter account of
Novi School's Asst. Superintendant Dr. R.J. Webber.
Webber's Twitter account is the official sounding
@NoviAcademics, and has nearly
2,900 followers. In addition, it is advertised and imbedded
(republished) on the
school districts official website.
That in our opinion makes it quite official.
The issue? Numerous politically oriented and business promoting
posts on an officially promoted feed that are also rebroadcast by
the school district. In our opinion, he's
bringing his personal opinions to the public, on the public's dime.
Recent examples this month alone include nine posts generally
critical of Betsy DeVos, the nominee for Secretary of Education, and
seven posts about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. We appreciate
his recognizing this important day, but seven times? We don't
see any posts about other such holidays.
In addition, on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day last year, Webber
actually tweeted "... allow our kids to learn directly from the
actions/images of the oppressor." Interesting choice of words from
an educator.
Webber also seems obsessed with an organization called Playworks
Detroit,
repeatedly posting about them.
There are numerous other examples, but rarely is a tweet actually
about Novi's academics. Many of these tweets appear to be posted
during school hours.
At a recent school board meeting, Trustee Dennis O'Connor
brought the issue up after we'd
(again)
emailed the board about it, agreeing with us and asking that it be
addressed. His comments were spot-on and succinct. He was clearly
advocating that the school district do the right thing and stop
posting political and other inappropriate tweets.
Trustee Kathy Hood then stated that she hadn't seen our email, and
immediately backed school administration by saying that she'd seen
no political posts on Webber's Twitter feed. If she wasn't aware of
our email how did she know to look for the political posts in
the first place?
After that board meeting, we got the expected reply from
Superintendent Dr. Steve Matthews, stating "Dr. Webber's Twitter
account is his own and not a district account," and that he didn't
see an issue. When we then pointed out that it is imbedded on the
district's website, he stated, "Reasonable people can and often
do disagree."
He is obviously OK with this - nothing to see here, move
along.
We the People believe Webber's Twitter account is periodically
inappropriate given it's official name and promotion. We also
believe it is a misuse of public resources. The account should be
renamed, not promoted by the district and certainly not imbedded on
the school district's website.
Finally, we are disappointed that at least one school board
member seemed to write off the issue just as quickly as it was
raised, apparently without really looking into it. As such, we'll be
sure to keep a closer eye on the usually routine board meetings.
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