Michael Hicks at Tuesday’s School Board meeting: “No, I have no more comments.”

by David Safier

While he was being interviewed on KNST radio, TUSD Board member Michael Hicks made a vile, unsubstatiated comparison between a group of TUSD students attending a UA Mexican-American Studies class and the sexual abuse which allegedly occurred at Penn State. When given an opportunity at Tuesday's school board meeting, Hicks refused to discuss the matter.

To date, Hicks has made one non-apology apology for his statement in a letter to Dr. John P. Jones, the Dean of the UA College of Social and Behavioral Sciences:

"I apologize for choosing to use Penn State in my comments about this concern. I understand how that can be interpreted as insensitive and inappropriate."

To say the Penn State comparison "can be interpreted as insensitive and inappropriate" is a dodge. There is no interpretation involved. At the very least, the comparison was insensitive and inappropriate. I'm not a lawyer, but to my ears, it borders on slander. An apology from Hicks has to begin with the admission he made an offensive comparison. Then he should admit he realizes the TUSD students were in no physical danger in the UA classroom.

You can read Hicks' letter here. You can read a longer discussion of the letter and a phone conversation I had with Hicks here.

At the Tuesday Board meeting Hicks had an opportunity to make a public apology, or at least a public statement, but he said nothing on his own. Board member Adelita Grijalva asked if Hicks was planning to say anything about the Penn State reference. Hicks reply in full was:

"No, I have no more comments."

Hicks has nothing more to say on the subject, he told Grijalva, the other Board members, Superintendent Pedicone and the people in attendance. It seems he feels it was enough to make one non-apology apology, not to the TUSD students, not to the UA prof and students who were in the classroom, but to the Dean of the college which includes the Mexican-American Studies program, who was not involved in the events.

I have not heard a public statement from Dr. Jones about the letter from Hicks. At this point, Adelita Grijalva is the only board member to go on record with her disapproval of Hicks' comments. She said she wants the board "to publicly remove ourselves as a Board and a district from the comments that were made by Mr. Hicks," which she called "incredibly irresponsible" and "insulting." Because the item was not on the agenda, Grijalva said it would have to be taken up later. We'll have to wait to find out the next move.