A New Ally

Sometimes I think I play 'Martin Luther King' to Drama Teacher's 'Malcolm X' where Principal Palpatine is concerned.* While my quiet resistance has proven to be far less controversial, and easier on my students and parents, his organized, militant response may have been far more effective in chipping away at her hold on Empire High. I stress "may have." I never actively tried to attack Palpatine. I just wanted to protect the my little kingdom from reckless, aggressive restructuring. But in my endeavors I find myself inching ever so closely towards the road that Palpatine wants me to walk down. She's close to her goal. She can smell it.

Nevertheless, I have made some progress myself. As I had hoped, last night turned out to be a good move for me. By just trying to go to the game, I earned big brownie points with Girls Sport Parent, who also happens to be one of the top movers and shakers in the community.

Cha-Ching. Add him to the list of powerful friends (of which I have a few).

The difference between me and Drama Teacher is that I don't use my connections to attack, only defend. Back when I had problems earlier this year with Palpatine, I had people behind the scenes doing damage control so that she couldn't paint me out as a trouble-making insubordinate rabblerouser to the district. Turns out my existing reputation took care of that for me. So just trying to do a good job, and taking care of my kids goes a long way..... as it should.

Where GSP can be useful is in establishing a process by which the individual sports, their coaches and booster parents work directly with me, rather than through administration. That puts me in control of when we play and where. I don't see how she could get in the way of that without making it painfully obvious that she wants direct control of the drum line schedule.

In the mean time, Palpatine may have more things to worry about. It's a damn good thing I'm not involved.

* Maybe not the best analogy. Both those guys were assassinated.