Monday, December 08, 2014

Reader: Shawn McGrew helped make Freeman a better place

A reader recently left this comment on the Turner Report post involving Joplin R-8 Board of Education member Shawn McGrew's dismissal at Freeman. My apologies for taking so long to make this a separate post:

To Mr. Turner, I've visited your blog off and on throughout the years and have found it to be both informative and entertaining. I also sided with you upon employment termination with the Joplin school system and thought the whole ordeal was rather shady on their part.

To the Joplin School Board, and the city council for that matter, I believe things in Joplin have been shady for years now. Joplin went through some very difficult times but money corrupts and that is what I believe we are seeing. Its sad.

That said, we all have skeletons in our closet. To all of the anonymous people posting here, I would imagine at least half of you have something you aren't proud of and would like to keep private. Shawn too may have his own skeletons. However, I have known him for many years and I have seen him do some amazing and selfless things for both individuals and the community as a whole. These blog postings, and comments, trample the man as if he were some sort of leper. We all make mistakes. We cannot change the past, we can only strive to for a better future. He has a good heart and it frustrates me to see so many people cutting him down who know nothing about him.

On a personal note, I think Freeman has made a mistake here. Having worked at Freeman for a very long time, I can say that it is not without its own politics and I suspect politics played a big role in his termination. Shawn helped to make Freeman a better place. He fought for all of you when ER turnaround times were 24+ hours for the year following the tornado when Joplin had but one hospital. He also did great things for and in the name of the Joplin tornado victims. Believe me, it was definitely an uphill battle where administration didn't always see eye-to-eye.

You see, they (Freeman) lost some of their soul after putting Paula and company in place. Speak up about the regime and you might find yourself looking for a new job too.

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Was this letter signed? Maybe it was written by shawn or a family member..just thinkin...

Anonymous said...

He did make FHS a better place...

By leaving.

Anonymous said...

He should resign from the Board. Bad. Behavior should not be representative of a Board member. He was not an asset to Freeman. He needs to resign. Huff can sure pick poor representatives.

Anonymous said...

Bad behavior? Is that what we call it now? I thought it was more like tweaking. Huff didn't pick him alone, 10:12. Landis and Sharp pushed this piece of goodness off on the public at Huff's request. They are as guilty of this as he is. They knew and didn't care.

Anonymous said...

John Anderson and Lionel Delmore wrote a famous country song from 1977-1982. I think of McGrew every time I hear it. Makes me wanna puke every time.