Conduct Unbecoming.....!

By now most of you have seen the video of the April 11 Board of
Education meeting showing the School Board member, Mr Berrios, confronting a community member. There have been calls for him to step down and quite honestly I think he should. Let’s think about the impact that his refusal to step down will have on the community and how he may have done so and maintained some level of respect from the community.


To be fair let’s review the reason, Mr Berrios, stayed is source of contention.

First, he clearly accuses a community member of threatening his 12 yr old daughter prior to the meeting. The community member did not make any statements containing Mr. Berrios’ name or reference his daughter at the meeting. While in my opinion, the community member did not threaten his daughter, as a parent, I am not going to judge his perception.

I, at the same meeting, had a woman, whom I do not know, scream erratically at me because my child is in the charter school. Not knowing this woman obviously gave me cause for concern that she knows my child was in a charter school. Now, I have not kept it a secret that my kid attends EPCS, but for someone I don’t know to be actively monitoring what I do with my child is concerning. So I get it.

But let’s be honest, if a parent really feels their child is in danger or has been threatened, wouldn’t a reasonable, mature, adult contact the authorities (police) immediately? As least that’s what I did right after the meeting. I Filed a police report. So I have to wonder,  why didn’t Mr. Berrios contact the authorities? Why did he opt to confront the community member days after the alleged threat?

Now let’s fast forward to the meeting on May 1. The Board President offers an apology on behalf of the Board. Mr Berrios, offers an apology, with a justification, and a reference to the fact that he continued on with his normal routine (coordinating his science team and coaching baseball). First of all, an apology with a justification indicates to me that he is not really apologetic for his actions. He still feels his actions were justified, but he is sorry if he offended us. Why is this important? It tells us that he feels there is justification for threatening physical violence, which likely indicates that he either has done this before, or will do it again, or both.

His refusal to step down also gives us an indication of how he really feels about his role as a school   Instead of the community being able to focus on what can enhance our district, we are now trying to figure out how to protect our children from those we elected to serve them.
board member. It’s about him and not the children. One would hope that as a school board member the children would be what is most important. His blatant disregard for the children on April 11 continued into the meeting on May 1. His behavior caused him to lose the confidence of the community.  Quite frankly, I don’t appreciate him using the children to try and prove a point. Our kids are the point.

At this point, what chance there was of Mr. Berrios maintaining any semblance of dignity or respect the community has been lost. Had Mr, Berrios truly been sorry and really considered the children to be most important his response would have gone something like;

"As a school board member and an elected official, I am held to a higher standard on the night of April 11, I failed to meet that standard. The community placed not only their trust but the education of their children in my hands and I have failed them. For this I offer my sincerest apologies to all. My actions prevented the school board from conducting necessary business to keep our schools functioning. My actions redirected the focus away from the children which contradicts my whole purpose for being a board member. While I offer no excuses for my behavior the events over that last few weeks culminating in my irresponsible behavior has taught me that, while my intentions are to help children, being a school board member, an elected public position, may not be the best way for me to accomplish my intentions. It is apparent that I do not have the temperament or disposition to tolerate being an elected official. I thank the people who supported me. I am sorry that I let you down. I am officially stepping down from my position as a member of the Englewood Board of Education. I will look to understand more about myself and how I may be able to drive positive change for our children.

How might you have felt differently about Mr. Berrios if he had offered an apology such as this? We all make mistakes but "you got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, Know when to walk away and know when to run." This, Mr Berrios, was a time to fold ‘em and walk away.

Amy Jones Bulluck