By Pepper Parr
December 19th, 2016
BURLINGTON, ON
We don’t always get it right.
And this time we got it very wrong.
We picked up a note on Halton District school Board trustee Richelle Papin’s Facebook page in which she wrote:
Well….Bye bye Ontario 😢😢😢 I finally got the answer I have been waiting for…for MONTHS😊 I’m happy to announce that in a few weeks, I am moving to Halifax.
Didn’t want to make it known to anyone, not even my friends or other family members, but I felt it was better this way!
I will be heading out the end of January … right after New Year’s to start my new life!
To start a new beginning!
I will try to phone everyone individually, but thought it would be easier to post on Facebook.
There was a second part to the posting. We did not see the additional wording nor did we follow up with Ms Papin to ensure that what she write was true.
The wording wasn’t all that clear but our failure to follow up is where we were clearly wrong.
A Gazette reader pointed out to us that there was a second part to the note on the Facebook page that we didn’t read. When we checked and saw the second part we immediately took down the article.
Ms Papin asked that we retract the article – which we did and she wanted an apology – which we will give her but we do so somewhat reluctantly
The Halton District School Board is in the process of making a very significant decision that will have a very significant impact on two high schools in the city; one of which, Lester B. Pearson, is in Papin’s ward. The “fake” Facebook page posting is not in the least amusing to those high school students parents.
Our mistake, and it was a mistake, we missed something.
Ms Papin’s act was deliberate, intended to by funny.
Richelle Papin is not moving to Halifax and she does not intend to resign from the Halton District School Board – that is something the voters in her ward can deal with in 2018
No one was amused.
@ Joan – completely concur with your assessment of her at Board meetings. For anyone who might be interested in Richelle Papin’s general attitude towards her constituents… in the fall of 2015 when the Board sent out notice informing parents that schools would be left unlocked due to job action, I contacted Ms Papin to ask what she (the Trustee for our Ward) and the Board intended to do to allay the safety concerns of parents. Her response? After a supposed consultation with colleagues, she called me back to say “What do you want us to do?” and “Pineland isn’t even in my Ward”. Perhaps not, geographically speaking, but she represents hundreds of students at that school who are in her Ward.
Incomplete information or not, her poor attempt at humour is an egregious error in judgement and SHE should be the one apologizing to families. Nice going once again, Ms Papin. Glad I didn’t elect you into your position. I hope Pearson parents have filed complaints with the Director of Education.
Thanks to the Gazette for alerting us about this.
Totally agree with the other posts. This Facebook posting was entirely inappropriate for a school trustee, especially when facing these major changes. It was, however, totally in keeping with her attitude as trustee. She has been completely disconnected and uninvolved at most meetings and looks downright bored, touching on arrogance. That’s not the attitude a trustee should bring to the table.
If Ms. Papin’s Facebook post was read completely would the Gazette even report on it ?
Given the quick retraction probably not.
This often happens when the complete story is not considered, those that re posted or retweeted the Gazette story are equally responsible for spreading information they did not take the time to verify.
The very old saying, you can’t believe every thing you read, is and always has been true.
Editor’s note: Probably – for a person with the level of responsibility Ms Papin has on would have expected something less than what a couple of teenagers do to occupy their time. If one reads the full Facebook posting – it is not all that clear that she was kidding. Kind of hard to ascertain that – the posting was pulled.
The Gazette did pull its original posting because it was factually wrong – however we did reprint that posting in our apology and explanation.
Note that the comments that have come in are – well read them for yourself and arrive at your own conclusion.
“A Gazette reader pointed out to us that there was a second part to the note on the Facebook page that we didn’t read. When we checked and saw the second part we immediately took down the article”
The Gazette made a mistake and corrected it, that’s not the fault of Ms. Papin or her post on Facebook.
Did Ms. Papin make a mistake?, one would need to read her full post to determine that.
Editor’s note: The full post is no longer on the Papin web site.
I read what was up on the Gazette at first, and her message first part was definitely about her moving to Halifax to begin a new life. I took it seriously, as it was written as a quote.
Apparently, it came out later that was a done as a joke, and now her full post is not available to see for sure. Given the reaction, and her retraction, I would presume she doesn’t want the whole story out there. Why not?
This to me is another mistake of hers that compounds the first.
As I said, closing Burlington schools, and her role as Trustee to make decisions in this, is no joke and not funny.
No one is laughing that I can see.
I agree with the Gazette: a “fake” Facebook page posting of this nature, and especially in these circumstances, is not the least bit amusing.
It demonstrates very poor judgment by the trustee.
The trustee is the one who needs to apologize.
Mistake or no mistake, this Trustee is an idiot if she thinks there was anything in the least bit “funny” about this matter that she could deliberately “joke” about.
She owes the community and her ward parents a personal apology. And she should move to Halifax, maybe even 500 miles further East.
She wants to joke about a deathly matter for Burlington schools, then do it there.