The Buzz Around Town
with Editor Kevin McManus
Image courtesy of Twitter Medina Schools Superintendent Aaron Sable is among a small handful of community leaders who are very visible online.
Cut the guy some slack.
Medina City Schools Superintendent Aaron Sable was the target of what the school district itself defines as social media cyber-bullying at the smartphone-held hands of, ironically, several district students and parents.
This all happened because he did not cancel school the snowy morning of Jan. 30, much to the dismay of students and concerned parents/guardians.
Judging by some of the emphatic reader feedback I received on my presidential Twitter column, many of you are not on Twitter and could give a damn about what occurs there. It is still a very relevant, instant mass communication tool in today’s society, even here in our community. The public messages posted especially matter when published by officials paid with our tax dollars, whether you’re hip to it or not.
Sable has been an active Twitter user, @MedinaSup, since signing a three-year contract in August 2016. Twitter has become an increasingly-popular trend for public officials at all levels of government. Sable uses it to highlight district accomplishments and report up-to-the-minute news quicker than this or any publication ever could. His PR game is pretty good, being among a small handful of community leaders who are very present online, posting multiple updates in a day at times.
But when you’re public like that, you’re really public.
Road conditions in the city the morning of Jan. 30, no doubt, were questionable at best, but Sable made the difficult call to keep operations going at 6:24 a.m. in a social media blast. He threw kudos out to the city’s road crews and added, “School is open! Snow should stop early this morning.”
Northeast Ohio winters are unpredictable, as we all know, so the snow didn’t really dissipate until after 8 a.m., well after busing for students had begun. That’s when criticisms began to fly Sable’s way, harsh objections to commuting in the harsh conditions.
Sable followed up with another Tweet at 8:32 a.m. after hundreds of responses, which included pictures of fender benders and snow-covered roads.
Police in the city responded to a handful of minor motor vehicle accidents that morning, but no injuries were reported.
“I messed up the call this morning. I am sorry. I will provide you more detailed information later. Tardies and absences will be excused,” Sable respoded.
The vulgarity and over-exaggerated absurdness Sable was then met with was just astounding. People literally demanded he step down, called for impeachment (it doesn’t work like that, by the way), made personal attacks and superimposed his face onto meme images that were shared like wildfire. Weirdly enough, former Superintendent Dave Knight’s likeness was also superimposed and widely referenced.
Admittedly, I found some of the responses tasteful and hilarious; nothing at all wrong with that particular approach, nor is respectfully voicing your opinion, but too many other individuals crossed moral lines – but moral lines really don’t exist online.
Although apologetic in his approach – and making a tough decision that would receive criticism one way or the other – Sable owned up to it. It should have, in theory, ended there.
But it only seemed to provoke hundreds of social media commentators, at that point mostly kids reluctantly sitting in school buildings Tweeting at will. It became a sensation for the next 48 hours and his list of followers nearly doubled.
I’ve gotta believe school administrators were and are keeping up with which students were saying what to the superintendent. First Amendment rights don’t always hold weight for students Tweeting on school property, as court cases locally and nationwide have shown.
I reached out to Sable for comment as it all unfolded, but calls were not returned. He instead issued a link to a statement for district parents on social media at the end of the school day to squash rumors that had been circulating online, a problem school districts everywhere are taking measures to stay ahead of through proactive, consistent social media use.
“In the event that a parent or guardian feels that the weather is not conducive for their child to go to school, I ask you to please keep them home or send them in late,” Sable said in the statement. “Our students’ safety is my priority.”
Medina usually has a little more class than what was shown this week to Sable, who has been at his post now for barely six months and has served the district well so far. The firestorm of insults just further proves how, when you no longer have to say something to someone’s face to get your message across, even a place with people as nice as the ones we have here in Medina can get kind of nasty.
Redneck Rumble
For diehard demolition derby drivers living in northeast Ohio, winter can be a drag.
For Mark Szakacs, a driver who has made some noise in recent years at the Medina County Fair’s derby, any opportunity to get out and compete during the winter months is worth pursuing.
Szakacs traveled to Union County, Ky., to keep his skills sharp, ultimately for the big show at the MCF, by running in the Redneck Rumble indoor derby Jan. 28. He was the seventh car eliminated of the 30 in the field, but Szakacs has his sights set on the big local title.
“Medina is my hometown and the fair will always be a big deal for me,” said Szakacs, a 2014 champ and 2015 runner-up at MCF. “I learned a lot in Kentucky and can use it to become a better driver and builder for the future. I plan to come back (to Kentucky) because I really like the challenge.”
Szakacs sported a ‘97 Ford Crown Victoria, a model he’s run several times and seen success with.
“When an indoor derby pops up in January, everyone shows up. There were drivers from all over the country and one from Canada,” he said. “What took me out was two broken axels ... I knew I had a car good enough to compete; it just wasn’t my night.”
Szakacs was one of two Ohio drivers running in the Redneck Rumble – the other was Bill Marett from Norwalk, the two-time reigning Medina County Fair ‘80s and Newer derby champion.
“Bill and I are actually pretty good friends,” Szakacs said of his regional rival who took the coveted No. 1 from him. “I was just at his wedding in October and we see one another often.”
Medina City Schools Superintendent Aaron Sable was the target of what the school district itself defines as social media cyber-bullying at the smartphone-held hands of, ironically, several district students and parents.
This all happened because he did not cancel school the snowy morning of Jan. 30, much to the dismay of students and concerned parents/guardians.
Judging by some of the emphatic reader feedback I received on my presidential Twitter column, many of you are not on Twitter and could give a damn about what occurs there. It is still a very relevant, instant mass communication tool in today’s society, even here in our community. The public messages posted especially matter when published by officials paid with our tax dollars, whether you’re hip to it or not.
Sable has been an active Twitter user, @MedinaSup, since signing a three-year contract in August 2016. Twitter has become an increasingly-popular trend for public officials at all levels of government. Sable uses it to highlight district accomplishments and report up-to-the-minute news quicker than this or any publication ever could. His PR game is pretty good, being among a small handful of community leaders who are very present online, posting multiple updates in a day at times.
But when you’re public like that, you’re really public.
Road conditions in the city the morning of Jan. 30, no doubt, were questionable at best, but Sable made the difficult call to keep operations going at 6:24 a.m. in a social media blast. He threw kudos out to the city’s road crews and added, “School is open! Snow should stop early this morning.”
Northeast Ohio winters are unpredictable, as we all know, so the snow didn’t really dissipate until after 8 a.m., well after busing for students had begun. That’s when criticisms began to fly Sable’s way, harsh objections to commuting in the harsh conditions.
Sable followed up with another Tweet at 8:32 a.m. after hundreds of responses, which included pictures of fender benders and snow-covered roads.
Police in the city responded to a handful of minor motor vehicle accidents that morning, but no injuries were reported.
“I messed up the call this morning. I am sorry. I will provide you more detailed information later. Tardies and absences will be excused,” Sable respoded.
The vulgarity and over-exaggerated absurdness Sable was then met with was just astounding. People literally demanded he step down, called for impeachment (it doesn’t work like that, by the way), made personal attacks and superimposed his face onto meme images that were shared like wildfire. Weirdly enough, former Superintendent Dave Knight’s likeness was also superimposed and widely referenced.
Admittedly, I found some of the responses tasteful and hilarious; nothing at all wrong with that particular approach, nor is respectfully voicing your opinion, but too many other individuals crossed moral lines – but moral lines really don’t exist online.
Although apologetic in his approach – and making a tough decision that would receive criticism one way or the other – Sable owned up to it. It should have, in theory, ended there.
But it only seemed to provoke hundreds of social media commentators, at that point mostly kids reluctantly sitting in school buildings Tweeting at will. It became a sensation for the next 48 hours and his list of followers nearly doubled.
I’ve gotta believe school administrators were and are keeping up with which students were saying what to the superintendent. First Amendment rights don’t always hold weight for students Tweeting on school property, as court cases locally and nationwide have shown.
I reached out to Sable for comment as it all unfolded, but calls were not returned. He instead issued a link to a statement for district parents on social media at the end of the school day to squash rumors that had been circulating online, a problem school districts everywhere are taking measures to stay ahead of through proactive, consistent social media use.
“In the event that a parent or guardian feels that the weather is not conducive for their child to go to school, I ask you to please keep them home or send them in late,” Sable said in the statement. “Our students’ safety is my priority.”
Medina usually has a little more class than what was shown this week to Sable, who has been at his post now for barely six months and has served the district well so far. The firestorm of insults just further proves how, when you no longer have to say something to someone’s face to get your message across, even a place with people as nice as the ones we have here in Medina can get kind of nasty.
Redneck Rumble
For diehard demolition derby drivers living in northeast Ohio, winter can be a drag.
For Mark Szakacs, a driver who has made some noise in recent years at the Medina County Fair’s derby, any opportunity to get out and compete during the winter months is worth pursuing.
Szakacs traveled to Union County, Ky., to keep his skills sharp, ultimately for the big show at the MCF, by running in the Redneck Rumble indoor derby Jan. 28. He was the seventh car eliminated of the 30 in the field, but Szakacs has his sights set on the big local title.
“Medina is my hometown and the fair will always be a big deal for me,” said Szakacs, a 2014 champ and 2015 runner-up at MCF. “I learned a lot in Kentucky and can use it to become a better driver and builder for the future. I plan to come back (to Kentucky) because I really like the challenge.”
Szakacs sported a ‘97 Ford Crown Victoria, a model he’s run several times and seen success with.
“When an indoor derby pops up in January, everyone shows up. There were drivers from all over the country and one from Canada,” he said. “What took me out was two broken axels ... I knew I had a car good enough to compete; it just wasn’t my night.”
Szakacs was one of two Ohio drivers running in the Redneck Rumble – the other was Bill Marett from Norwalk, the two-time reigning Medina County Fair ‘80s and Newer derby champion.
“Bill and I are actually pretty good friends,” Szakacs said of his regional rival who took the coveted No. 1 from him. “I was just at his wedding in October and we see one another often.”