Principal Victims Of Acrimony

A year ago Rodger Lake was as eager as a kid waiting for Christmas.

He was going to do what few principals do in a career - close an old school and open a new one.

The modern $13 million Chase Middle School was built at 37th and Custer to replace Libby Junior High, a well-worn brick school that opened at 2900 E. First in 1928.

Today Lake describes his maiden year at Chase as “the worst year of my life.”

Emotionally drained by accusations of racism, rancor-filled parents, staff turmoil and odd technical problems, Lake, 46, claims he isn’t up to a second year at the helm of the new school.

Dianne Fields, 47, Chase’s assistant principal, apparently feels the same.

The two say they have asked to be reassigned for the good of Chase. They hope to be principals next year, but will teach if necessary.

Sorry, but I can’t buy it. The truth is probably that Lake and Fields are being eased out of a volatile situation by pressure from on high.

Which makes this a very tragic moment in the careers of two fine educators who deserve better.

“You have to get your ego out of the whole thing and see what’s best for the whole school,” says Lake, adding: “You know, the school doesn’t belong to us, we just work here.”

Fields says her “year from hell” wore her down emotionally and physically. “I missed one day of school in the last 15 years. I missed 10 last month. My feelings are like a flower stem you’ve taken a hammer to and crushed.”

Some of the Chase difficulties were laughably minor.

Fire alarms kept blaring for no reason. A mysterious foul odor enveloped the school. A small lake formed in the schoolyard.

The human issues - the racial squabbling, the attacks on character - were downright nasty.

A black student assaulted three classmates with scissors and then punched Fields in the face. A mother complained that the lockers of a few black students were searched.

Yammering parents postured like fools whenever they could dupe the media into covering one of their staged venomous hate rallies.

Chase teachers struck back at the person many consider the key troublemaker. They accused Chase counselor Lionel Harding-Thomas, a black man, of intimidating staff members, fueling the racial fires and closing his door to students.

Harding-Thomas wouldn’t comment for this column. He has previously branded the school and faculty as racists out to get him.

State investigators waded in and discovered the obvious: The ugliness made Chase “a hostile working, teaching and learning environment.”

It will take months and much willingness by all parties to heal these deep wounds.

But Lake and Fields didn’t create the unrest at Chase.

That began simmering when Libby, a hulking landmark in the humble East Central neighborhood, gave way to a posh new school on the affluent South Hill.

Some class-conscious minority students and their parents felt disenfranchised. They stereotyped the new school - though named after Jim Chase, Spokane’s only black mayor - as a haven for rich white kids.

That’s not true, but perception hurts no less than reality.

Had school district administrators sensed how deeply the East Central feelings ran, they could have planned for a smoother transition.

The last Libby eighth-grade class could have finished middle school at Libby. Chase could have opened last fall to seventh-graders only.

In just one year, no former Libby students would be around to feel uncomfortable at a new school.

One of the constants of middle school is that a new crop of kids comes and goes every two years.

But the damage is done. What began as a year of bright promise will be remembered as something bitter and unpalatable for everyone involved.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Doug Clark The Spokesman-Review