JHS Dedication and Ribbon-Cutting- The last hurrah for C. J. Huff

Not bad for a farm boy from McCune, Kansas.

During the dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Joplin High School/Franklin Technical Center Friday, Superintendent C. J. Huff sat beside the vice president of the United States, and alongside the secretary of education, the governor of Missouri, and even the Seventh District Congressman.

This was the pinnacle of a dream that began for Huff after he first declared "We Shall Have School," and then told Assistant Superintendent Angie Besendorfer to make sure it happened. Three months later, school started on time.(In the speeches he gave in the months after the tornado, Huff always credited Besendorfer with lining up the temporary buildings and making sure the machinery was in place for school to start on time. Since that time, Besendorfer's name has vanished from Huff's speeches.)

School started on time- just as it would have if Huff's predecessor, Jim Simpson, had still been here, if Besendorfer herself had been superintendent, if former assistant superintendents Doug Domer or Steve Doerr had been in charge, or just as if any number of area superintendents had been in that position..

The only difference, a former school administrator told me, "With anyone but C. J. Huff, it would have been done without the public relations machinery." No one ever thought about the possibility of not having school.

School is what educators do- one way or another Joplin students would have been in class come August 2011.

Huff's famous statement was referenced again Friday by some of the powerful speakers he had lined up. The hero story continues to be spread.

But the attention, despite the presence of Joe Biden and Arne Duncan, has shifted away from Joplin. Other places have had disasters. Moore, Oklahoma, for instance, is managing a magnificent, hero-free recovery.

Ten thousand people will show up for the dedication, C. J. Huff had said. That did not happen. Generous estimates of the attendance put it at 2,500.

The ceremony featured a long list of speakers, including Biden, Duncan, Gov. Nixon, Billy Long, Joplin Mayor Michael Seibert, and High School Principal Kerry Sachetta, among others.

All of them received much more applause than C. J. Huff.

When Huff began tearing up in the middle of his speech, there were some audible groans in the audience. They had all been through that before.

Then it came time for the big event, the cutting of the ceremonial six-and-a-half-mile ribbon. In the Joplin Globe Friday, a story credited Joplin High School senior Alan Hass with coming up with the idea for the ribbon. In a meeting with high school teachers the week before school started (for the rest of the district, but not for the high school) C.J. Huff said the ribbon was his idea.

Both are accurate.

The idea for a record-breaking event came from the Huff Administration and was passed down to the teacher who sponsors the Link Crew organization who told students it would be a great idea to break a record at the dedication ceremony.

At that point, Hass came up with the ribbon concept.

With all of the negative publicity that has surrounded the $11,500 cost of the ribbon, right before the dedication ceremony, the Huff publicity team went into action once again and trotted out Hass for a Joplin Globe story that allowed Huff to claim that the ceremony, as a Globe headline said, was a "student-driven event."

Anyone who doubted Hass' role in the ribbon idea would have had those doubts removed when they saw how worried he was that the wind and the rain were going to wreak havoc with the ribbon-cutting.

The Joplin Globe article, which was designed to curb criticism of Huff, was the last publicity the senior received.

Hass' name was not mentioned during the dedication ceremony. His role was already done.

Alan Hass, however, was not the only one whose contributions were overlooked during the 75-minute program.

It was Joplin High School teachers, many of whom have left the district over the past three years- not because of the tornado or because their spouses found different jobs, or because they were unable to keep up with 21st Century learning demands, all reasons Huff has given for the departures- but because they wanted to get away from a man-made disaster that threatens to rival the forces of nature that destroyed the high school on May 22, 2011.

A hardy group of teachers have stuck it out these past three years, hoping against all hope, that somehow things will change for the better.

Not one of those teachers was on stage Friday.

Not one.

It has been the teachers and students of Joplin High School who have suffered these past three years while C. J. Huff has visited more than 17 states, Washington D. C. and next month, Saskatchewan, to tell the story of how he declared there will be school.

The students had a prominent role in Friday's ceremony because, of course, it was all "for the kids," the kids that C. J. Huff famously declared as his own.

The teachers, just as they have been throughout C. J. Huff's tenure in Joplin, were left out. After all, under the Huff Administration, they have become nothing more than interchangeable parts- one teacher is as good as another.

The teachers and students were the ones you couldn't have blamed for shedding tears during Friday's ceremony. They have been through a lot and have not had the ability to jet somewhere for an $8,000 speaking fee.

Friday, however, was C. J. Huff's day, no doubt about it. Important people said nice things about him as he sat humbly, hanging on every word.

And when he cried and was overcome by emotion during his speech, maybe there were some groans from the audience, but the vice president of the United States touched his arm and consoled him.

And that made everything OK.