OPINION: Superintendent’s situation is simply sad

My heart sank. I knew what it meant. I knew this would be tough. In my 12 years as editor of this paper, I’ve never covered a tougher issue than the scandal that broke this week in the Madison County school system. But before I even get to that, I can’t help but think of one image, the young boy alone in his room, reading about his father, his heart broken by what is in this issue. If you take some glee in seeing a man fall from grace, get your mind back to that image of the son, the daughter looking at their dad’s picture, their hurt at home transferred to ink and paper for all to see. Think of your father, how you’d feel. If you still feel glee, then I worry for you.

But facts can’t be ignored. And tough jobs have to be done. Reporting on public ugliness is necessary when it involves a leader in the community.

And here are the facts: Superintendent Mitch McGhee, the top paid public official in this county, had an affair. He and the woman are both married with kids. He used a school computer and e-mail address to converse with the woman he was seeing. They spoke in very explicit language on school equipment during school hours. Those e-mails were altered when someone tried to get them through an open records request.

The superintendent’s position is a political post. It’s very hard to survive in politics when someone faces sexual guilt. Many people can’t find much forgiveness for such things. I venture to say that you really can’t survive facts like those revealed this week, not politically, not in a post overseeing administrators, teachers, school workers and thousands of kids in a rural, conservative county. But McGhee is trying to make a go of it. He said he wanted to admit to his mistakes and be honest about his failings. When I left a message with him Sunday to show him the big black binder of e-mails, I wondered if he’d call back at all. But he did and he arrived at The Journal office within 30 minutes. I have some respect for anyone who will meet you eye to eye to discuss his failings. That’s hard to do, particularly when they’re this big, this public and this embarrassing.

Like anyone who has read the e-mails, I was disturbed. They are very bad. There is a jaw-dropping element to them that many will certainly read with laughter and delight. As an editor, I’m presented with this dilemma: how much of that do you show? I think one or two examples of the sexually explicit nature of the correspondence suffices in getting the point across. Anything more is gratuitous. Also, do you name the mistress? I think not. She is not a Madison County public official. It could have been any woman and this story is still the same. Her identity is irrelevant, though I don’t expect she’ll be able to keep any secrets now.

Naturally, the timing of this scandal draws inevitable comparisons to the recent Damon Evans debacle. Of course, there was no DUI. But there was a venturing into public traffic in a different form — through a public computer system.

Had McGhee used Gmail, Yahoo or AOL e-mail accounts, he could have avoided public review of his conversations with the woman he saw. But he didn’t do that. And in opening that door, he forfeited his privacy. Once that forfeit was made, he was commanded to show what he’d done, which he’s obligated to do. And when that happened, he erred in perhaps the worst way from a legal standpoint, with the editing of incriminating evidence. The Georgia Press Association attorney wrote us this week that tampering with documents requested through the Open Records Act is a crime.

Apart from the issues of what McGhee did, how he responded and what will happen to him, there is the matter of who did this to him. It’s like Madison County now has its own version of “Deep Throat.” Who hired the Athens attorney? Who compiled all the information and highlighted all the evidence of McGhee’s wrongdoing and attempt to cover it up? Who sent out the numerous copies of the e-mails, not just to this newspaper, but to various citizens around Madison County? Was this a civic-minded act of moral outrage over the school leader’s affair, or is there another, more personal motivation?

The binder of information is impressive in its thoroughness, the composition of a glossary and an index. Each page is in a plastic page protector. The original discs of edited and unedited e-mails were included to verify their authenticity. It is politically smart. There is a cover letter to my boss blasting my former co-worker and me for a recent story on the school system audit in which we detailed the superintendent’s discretionary spending. The letter said we didn’t go far enough to expose problems with the BOE chairman’s pay by seeking Jim Patton’s actual pay stubs. I read that and recognized beyond the sting of the words that it was not just a criticism but a fairly smart political tactic — an “are-you-man-enough” challenge.

It is remarkable that the person who filed the open records request knew exactly what name to ask for in the e-mail records and that there would be evidence of the affair on the superintendent’s public e-mail account. When the records were turned over, the person knew that the information had been deleted. The attempt to bring McGhee down obviously includes some real insider knowledge.

The attack is impressive. And there was something there to find for sure. That is painfully clear. But the anonymous nature of the attack undermines the moral outrage it generates. No doubt, it exposes a true ugliness in a public figure. But you cannot read the dirty e-mails and feel good about McGhee or the anonymous person who mailed them to various locales in the county. There is a vengeance that soaks through the indexed names, the glossary, the yellow highlights, the great work and expense behind this. It is rage. And you can’t help but wonder where and why that rage originated and why it won’t show its face. If it’s purely civic-minded indignation from someone outside the system, there is little reason to hide. But it seems obvious that whoever did this recognizes their own political risk in presenting this. Perhaps they’ll ultimately claim responsibility for this. It seems necessary.

Madison County saw a human failing in one of its top leaders this week. That has to be dealt with accordingly. There’s no getting around that. If McGhee was on the other side of this, doing the disciplining, I’m sure he’d have to weigh the hard facts that are very obvious. If he stays, how can he deny the problem he’ll face whenever sexual misconduct issues arise in the school system? How can he command authority over such matters now? He can’t.

But I think it’s important for Madison County to recognize that someone else’s self-induced misery is not a cause for joy. This is nothing but sadness. To take any glee in this, well, you better recognize some human failing in yourself, too.

Zach Mitcham is editor of The Madison County Journal.