Jul. 25, 2008 at 10:48pm

AUDIO: Tacoma School Board Meeting (with special guest THE TRAVELLER)

The Melon's Altruistic Public Service Coming Soon

THE MELON BEGINS FREE COVERAGE OF THE TACOMA SCHOOL BOARD

For some time now I’ve been following the debate surrounding televising the Tacoma School Board’s public meetings. According to the Tacoma News Tribune, the Board’s reservations about taking steps to use televised or audio recorded pod casts to increase their public exposure range from budget concerns to fears of citizens like Robert “The Traveler” Hill disrupting meetings with "inappropriate" discourse. So being the local journalist, activist and education junkie that I am, I decided to offer School Board President Jim Dugan a practical solution: allow The Melon Online to donate its equipment and staff to the Tacoma School Board for the purpose of recording and uploading unedited public meetings onto our website, where anyone can watch what’s happening from the comfort of their very own home...

As for trouble-makers like Robert "the Traveler" Hill, I personally believe they pose a real but minimal risk to the school board and should not be used as an excuse to deny free televised coverage. Of course, “The Traveler” would agree with me, as evident by his recent performance during the Board’s July 24 meeting. Before a standing room audience of nearly 200 individuals which included: members of Stand for Children, ACORN, The Korean Women’s Association and the various teachers unions – as well as representative of The Pierce County Skills Center, MAT students from the University of Tacoma, representative from ECAP and Head Start and The Seattle Korean Consulate (with the Consul General himself present), Mr. Hill stood quietly in the corner adjacent to the podium for nearly a full hour with his back to all assembled wearing a t-shirt that declared “Shit Happens!” in giant bold letters. Writing feverishly on his note pad, he seemed oblivious to all assembled prior to delivering the following statement.