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– News about Quincy from Quincy Quarry News with commentary added
In the hot seat. A very hot seat …
A Quincy Quarry News file photo
Quincy Quarry starts a shot clock on Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch’s so far no comment on school protest.
Given the ongoing silence by Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch over Friday’s student walkout at Quincy High School in protest of both recent and ongoing racist and sexual harassment of students, the Quarry is instituting a shot clock on Mayor Koch that will continue to run until he might actually come out from the Kochbunker underneath City Hall and make a statement about the metastasizing problems within local public schools.
After all, as mayor, the junior college dropout is also the Chair of the School Committee and thus is the one who is ultimately accountable whenever things go wrong within local public schools.
Happier times for Pinocchio
An old as well as ill-advised Facebook photo
At the same time, given Quincy Quarry’s long-standing policy of striving to provide balanced and fair coverage, the Quarry will not start the shot clock until 9 am today and thus an hour after City Hall has opened for business even though the mayor and his Chief of Staff Pinocchio Walkbacker should have hunkered down all weekend so as to try to grift a proper response to problems which one can readily argue was at least fueled by the mayor’s adamant decision to not undertake positive steps both addressed and then voted upon for approval by Quincy’s City Council.
That and Mayor Koch’s prefacing as well as appalling incident of hot talk dog-whistling over thirteen months ago.
Actually come up up with a potentially viable plan that might fool enough locals, however, remains to be seen.
And in the meanwhile, TikTok, tick tock – whatever.
This pending second walkout was featured on last night’s ten o’clock TV news. I was shocked that the mayor’s office remained silent. I’ve been a city resident all of my life and can not recall the last time students held a walkout, never mind two.
Sally,
Please give the mayor a break!
The superintendent of schools has repeatedly addressed the students’ concerns while the mayor is working hard on addressing the many other issues that impact our city.
I think many of the commentators on Quincy Quarry need to take a nice walk around the city to breathe some fresh air!
Hey, Dan the Man, if the superintendent addressed the issue as you claim, why is another walk-out planned?
Further, Go for a walk and breathe some fresh air? Really? Do you mean like what the students are doing?
I do not think I am alone with feeling that mayor Koch should have already spoken up and out.
My advice to you – get out of that big gas-guzzling SUV with the Koch decal that you likely drive and try to walk and cross the dangerous streets of Quincy yourself!
Hey Dan-o The mayor is supposed to be the top official in the city as well as the President of the School Committee, and HE — not the Superintendent — is the individual who must respond in a public and obvious manner. Just so you’ll be able to grasp this, the Superintendent is subordinate to the Mayor and the responsibility ultimately and obviously belongs to the Mayor. Sally G is spot-on in her perception and commentary and in light of that, you should just take a walk.
Thank you Dom.
There’s a piece this afternoon in the PL and it tells us:
In an interview Monday afternoon, Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch, who serves as chair of the school committee, called Friday’s walkout “unproductive.” He said he respects the students and their position, but that it’s time to “get to work” combating any issues of racism in the schools.
“I think the vast majority of our kids do the right thing every day… Then there are (sic) a percentage of kids that have some challenges,” he said. “When I see this kind of hate speech I ask, ‘Is it mental illness, is it ignorance or is it just pure evil?’ I think, with the ages of these kids, it’s ignorance. They don’t understand the far-reaching implications their actions have, and it’s up to us to help them understand.”
Koch added that “hate speech, racial slurs, whatever it may be — we aren’t going to tolerate it.”
So, I’m not sure this amounts to stopping the shot clock since it was an interview with a newspaper and not a public announcement. And, of course, he offered no solutions and spoke in vague clichés — as a commenter on another article predicted.
In other words, he basically said nothing.
Well the lord mayor says — “it’s time to get to work.”
And that the walkout was “unproductive”
And he wonders about hate speech: ” Is it mental illness, is it ignorance, or is it just pure evil?”
And says “It’s up to us to help them understand”
And, of course, he adds, just to drive the point(?) home: “We aren’t going to tolerate it.”
Oh, well, problem solved . . . NOT.
And apparently Dan the man considers this tripe as “working hard” and wants us to “give the mayor a break”
Really?
The mayor should give the people of Quincy, the taxpayers, a break — from his incompetence.