The Christian County Trumpet set up a phone call between Major Danny Cazier and a public, though unknown to Major Danny, Facebook heckler, regarding his case against the Ozark R-VI School District.
The CCT received this letter September 27, 2022 after Major Danny spoke with the heckler. (The CCT has edited the original letter for brevity and conciseness.)
The heckler eventually came back, triggering further response (featured in upcoming articles.)
Sept. 27, 2022
I just got off the phone with
.
We still have substantial disagreement about some issues, but it was a productive, respectful phone call.
His principal impression of me was formed by a phone call between JROTC instructors and a cadet’s parents, which he reports he was party to. He insists he knew me based on his having judged drill meets at Ozark High School.
I can’t confirm whether he ever did.
Why Maj. Danny couldn’t have met his Facebook heckler
My role during drill meets was running the scoring room. Even if he did judge any of our drill meets, I wouldn’t have encountered him there. He remained unwilling to tell when he had been a recruiter locally, complicating my effort to figure out whether we might have met or spoken prior to today.
The phone call in question arose from a cadet wanting to remain in JROTC beyond her freshman year but her parents feeling she needed to follow other academic pursuits. This student was a high-performing, valued member of one of our competitive teams.
One of my colleagues wanted to call her parents to answer whatever concerns made them feel like her future would not be well served by her continuing JROTC.
He asked me and our third colleague to sit in on the conference call.
I don’t recall our being aware that anyone else (i.e., the heckler) was in on the call. (The heckler) remembers the call differently.
What the Facebook heckler said happened
He says the parents reached out to him to join them in the call as they felt they were being bullied on this issue. Perhaps they paused the call to connect him. Perhaps it was a scheduled call and they invited him to be party to it when they answered. I don’t remember those details as it wasn’t my student, my situation, or my phone call.
Although (the heckler) previously asserted that this would have been in 2019-2020, he rightly recognized today (at my prompting but without my offering up the date) that this would really have been in the spring of 2019. He also correctly named the cadet in question.
I have to presume he knows something about that call and his memory is reliable. This call would surely have left a bigger impression in his mind than mine given that:
1) he was reportedly solicited to be part of it,
2) he was informed of instructor subterfuge, and
3) I was just sitting in on a phone call at the colleague’s request.
Neither (the heckler) nor I recall my having any role in the phone call.
Nevertheless, he holds me accountable for the phone call. His position is familiar within the military. He viewed my position as that of a commanding officer responsible for all that happens or doesn’t happen within his command. Given this perspective, he felt anything done wrong by a “subordinate” was a reflection on me.
Facebook heckler fails to understand military vs. school
That is simply not how JROTC operates.
The military doesn’t see it that way.
The retired Army professionals who fill these positions don’t function that way.
And the school district is explicit in denying my position entailed any authority over my colleagues.
His principal point of contention, as I understand it, is that the cadet’s instructor (NOT me) altered a student’s schedule AFTER the parent signed it and the student/teacher submitted it to the school that way (or was prepared to do so before being discovered).
I wasn’t previously aware of this claim.
He says that allegation was part of the phone call discussion. Perhaps it was and the instructor offered us two colleagues an explanation that satisfied us he hadn’t done anything wrong.
If there were a legitimate claim of instructor interference with a parent’s plan for their child, I would have remembered it. It either didn’t come up or the instructor offered us a different account of that event that we accepted.
Inside the Facebook heckler’s head
(The heckler) vehemently objects to the present criticism of the school leadership. He adamantly believes that the community’s attitude (duty?) toward the school district should be unqualified support. If district officials are ultimately replaced, he feels we owe them complete support, morally and substantively, until then.
This is a familiar attitude within the military.
In fact, he presumed that I felt (or at least asserted that I should feel) the same way.
I don’t at all.
Our allegiance lies first to truth, not to people and organizations. Loyalty to organizations requires that we forgive honest mistakes and be uncompromising critics on deliberate (or even culpably negligent) acts of malice, abuse, mismanagement, etc.
At any rate, I believe the phone call was fruitful for both of us.
He still resists presenting any evidence of his past recruiting assignment. I think he feels his word should just be accepted because of who he is.
The military has a “culture of honor” (if you are familiar with that term and all it implies). Challenging someone’s honor by asking them to provide evidence of a claim can be interpreted as an insult to their integrity.
Again, I don’t buy into that.
But I at least recognize it.
Heckler concedes, then goes back to heckling
Perhaps his reticence on this point is more a point of “honor” than of deceit. I still don’t believe we have ever met, and he readily acknowledged that his impression of me was the result of a colleague’s phone call over a colleague’s concern, not any actual interaction with me.
He even allowed that he might be completely wrong about my character, while still being highly opposed to any role I play in challenging the present District administration.
In the end, he offered that he was unlikely to ever mention me again (on Facebook or elsewhere) not because he had a change of heart about me but because he wanted to let this whole issue just fade away.
While he and I remain ideologically opposed on how to handle corruption in an organization, he seemed a generally sincere fellow (even if a little loose in deciding who to fault for another’s behavior).
Best regards,
MAJ Danny Cazier
CCT NOTE: But the heckler didn’t go away. Find out what happens next in part 2…