Ronan High School in national spotlight

RONAN — Events surrounding one Ronan School District administrator’s decision to cancel a guest speaker have slowed down significantly over the last few days, but in a flurry of national press coverage last week, hundreds of angry, mostly anonymous Americans rallied behind Bigfork resident Jerry Molen, who was turned away from his scheduled presentation to seniors on Monday, May 14.

High school principal Tom Stack said he canceled Molen’s presentation at the last minute because neither he nor the history classroom teacher knew the topic of the speech, or how it was tied to the curriculum, and concerned parents and community members had expressed their belief that Molen was too much of a “right-wing conservative” to speak to students without parental approval.

Molen has made a career producing Hollywood films alongside director Steven Spielberg, helping to create blockbusters such as “Schildler’s List,” “Jurassic Park,” “Twister” and “Rain Man.” His latest endeavor is slated to hit theaters in July. Titled “2016,” the film is based on “The Roots of Obama’s Rage,” a book by Dinesh D’Souza that predicts what the country might look like if President Obama is elected to another term.

“In the past, we’ve had some backlash from presenters,” Stack told fellow staff and community members at the district’s regular school board meeting on Monday night.

Stack said that in his role as the school’s top administrator, he is the one responsible for making sure that anything controversial passes through parents first. According to Stack, it was a community member who set up the presentation after a history teacher had agreed to host Molen in his classroom. (Molen was not asked to speak at graduation, as other media sources reported.)

“This is where the communication broke down,” Stack said.

The morning and early afternoon of the day of Molen’s visit, Stack said he received phone calls from community members concerned with the message that Molen was going to share with students, calling him a “right-wing conservative.”

“Those are words they used — not my words,” Stack said, adding that he began researching Molen online, and found some consistency with what the concerned callers had said. “In my opinion, I was forced to make a decision about a presentation that I did not know anything about.”

When he asked the teacher about the topic of the presentation, the teacher could not confirm what Molen was going to talk about. Therefore, Stack said he chose not to compound the problem and canceled the visit. He told Molen that some concerns had risen and if he wanted to speak to the seniors, they could come that night to the presentation he was giving to the community at the Ronan Performing Arts Center.

“He responded to me by saying, and I quote, ‘I suppose you’re happy with the world we live in,’” Stack said, adding that he’s made thousands of decisions over his last eight years with the district, and he’s always put kids first.

Shortly after the decision was made, Molen contributed an op-ed piece to the Daily Inter Lake in Kalispell. In it, he expressed his surprise and concern with Stack’s decision, which he said “robbed” students of an opportunity and “indoctrinated” them “with a sense of fear and mistrust.” A week later, several national news sources had picked up on the story. On Friday, it went viral.

Through a barrage of emails and phone calls from people all across the country, Stack said he’s been called every name in the book — a Nazi, a Marxist, and other things he chose not to repeat. Of even more concern, however, he received two messages on Friday that threatened him and his family. As a result, Stack contacted local law enforcement, and removed his family from his house.

“This has become about politics and the armed services, not about what actually happened,” he told the board on Monday. “I’m sorry that I shined a negative light on you, the school and the district. This is not how I wanted to be remembered.”

In the meantime, Molen’s story has been circulating newspapers, television, and radio shows across the country. He’s denied that his speech was ever intended to push a political agenda.

“I like talking to the students about their futures, the importance of furthering their education — the fact that they’re in charge of the rest of their lives and they need to step up to the plate and take charge of it,” he said on Monday’s “Voices of Montana” radio show. “I think it was because they were afraid of what I might say, which was fairly unknown because no one asked me to read it to them.”

About Stack, Molen added, “I think he did what he felt was right for the students. I give him an “A” for looking out for his students, but I give him an “F” for the way he handled it with me.”

Ronan’s superintendent Andy Holmlund said he’s had significant conversations with Molen. Holmlund apologized and said that from an administrative perspective, the schools are definitely going to learn from the experience.

“It’s an unfortunate incident that has occurred, but you can’t un-ring that bell. You just learn from it and move forward,” he said. “Administrators are asked to make decisions with the information they have. Not everything is easy.”

Unfortunately, in today’s instantaneous, anonymous and media-driven world, that can lead to some scary moments as a public official. Holmlund, too, has received death threats over the issue. Many of these hateful emails that were sent to the entire school board are available for the public to view on the district’s website.

“We live in a viral world now, and we live in an anonymous world, so anyone can say anything they want and just hit send,” Holmlund said. “I know that as a public official there’s nothing in my life that’s private. But does that give anyone the right to slander me? That’s the new norm and it’s very concerning.”

While the emails mostly came from far away places, several locals were also disappointed in the way their school’s administration treated such an influential and inspirational man.

“Does that mean that anyone who has a political belief — left, right or center — is automatically disqualified from speaking to school students?” asks Ronan graduate Zachary Pitts. “Would we disallow Barack Obama and George Bush from speaking to our students because they are prominent members of political parties? It makes no sense.”

On Monday night, several teachers and former students stood in front of the board to express their support for Stack, who – for reasons unrelated to this event – is leaving for another job in Clinton, Mont. at the end of the month. They said he has done amazing things for students at Ronan High School.

“I’ve seen some kids in this district that would not have made it if not for Tom,” one teacher said. “It’s really easy to sit behind your computer and “flame” on somebody you don’t know, but if it were me, I probably would have made the same decision.”

Holmlund had similar sentiments for his departing principal.

“Mr. Stack has been with me for eight years and he’s done an impeccable job,” Holmlund said. “One decision doesn’t malign who he is and what he’s provided to this district.”