LAKEWOOD RANCH — About 50 Lakewood Ranch High School parents didn’t hold back when they had the chance to ask questions of the three finalists for the school’s principal job.
Linda Nesselhauf, assistant principal of Manatee High School; Don Sauer, assistant principal of Lakewood Ranch High School; and Melanie Metz, of Buffalo, N.Y. were all asked during a forum at the school Tuesday what they would do to reverse a stigma that the school has gotten for its smoking and drug use in the school bathrooms.
“My son is so intimated by the bathrooms that he will only use the bathroom by the band room,” said parent Cathy Howze.
Another parent said her child “holds it in” all day because of a fear of dealing with filthy conditions, clouds of smoke and harassment.
“The drug use in the bathrooms and bullying is something you hear constantly from the kids,” parent Maureen Platt told each of the three candidates. “Call it gossip or buzz, but it’s out there. Everyone has heard it.”
None of the candidates denied that the school, which is the only Manatee County high school to receive an “A” grade from the state this year, has some serious issues on campus.
Nesselhauf, who prefaced her remarks by saying she wouldn’t be politically correct even if people didn’t like hearing what she has to say, explained that Lakewood Ranch is a sub-set of East Manatee, and East Manatee has drugs, alcohol and cigarettes.
“Are there drugs in the bathroom? Yes,” Nesselhauf told the parents. “There will be drugs at the baseball field and in your youth group at your church. We just have to find a way to protect your child at school and we will do a good job doing it.”
Nesselhauf, who was at Lakewood Ranch two years ago as an assistant principal, plans to deal with the issue of drugs and smoking on campus by letting students know usage will not be tolerated.
“My number one goal will be to achieve an orderly environment with clear expectations,” Nesselhaulf said.
Metz had the most creative solution. In her school in New York, with the help of students, administrators created a “hot map” with the places marked with x’s where drugs were prevalent.
The school then cracked down hard on those areas.
“It’s happening here and everywhere,” Metz said. “My school is an affluent community in New York and I had to take a gun off a student in the cafeteria. A student came to me and said, ‘Miss Metz, I saw a kid on the bus with a gun.’ That was the key. We had established a relationship with the kids where they trusted us to talk. Our motto is ‘Listen, care, do something about it.’ “
Sauer took a lot of heat from the parents because he’s an assistant principal now and was well aware that the bathrooms are a problem.
“Why if you knew about this didn’t you fix it?” asked Jerry Howze.
Sauer said that when the school was hit with budget cuts the amount of coverage on the bathrooms was reduced, but he stressed that former principal Mike Wilder had them cleaned often as he could during the day.
But Sauer was passionate about taking a hard-line approach.
He said he would bring back drug-sniffing dogs, which the school had while he was in charge of discipline a few years ago.
He also pointed a finger at faculty who do not check on bathrooms.
“Everyone has to buy in,” Sauer said. “You’ve got to have students come in and tell us and not be afraid they will be snitches and you have to have faculty go into the bathrooms and not just walk past.
“I will tell you this,” Sauer said. “These bathrooms will be monitored and looked after next year.”
Superintendent Tim McGonegal and assistant superintendent Lynette Edwards will read comment cards filled out by the parents and the school board is expected to confirm McGonegal’s choice July 13 or 27.
Richard Dymond, Herald reporter, can be reached at 708-7917.
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