Remember this dude?
This is none other than Larry Quinn former Buffalo Board of Education member pictured playing with his phone as a Buffalo high school student named Chronicle McClain was speaking of Board members who ignore speakers during the public input part of the board meetings by tapping pens and looking at their phones instead of hearing what the public has to say to them. Is there a name for doing the very thing someone accuses you of doing as he's accusing you of doing it? I think in the era of Covid we can call it Dysynchronicity and we'll give Lars a credit for it when they come to put it in the NED. Someone during the dark days of the dreaded Quinn Paladino and Sampson Board named him Lars and I swear it still makes me laugh to this day. Was it you Gibson? I think it might have been.
Well it's been ten years give or take since Quinn and Golisano fired Johnny Mucks, let Ted Nolan skate, lost Chris Drury and Danny Briere then cashed in by selling the team to the Pegulas. Larry's upward failure was a Billy Fucillo sized huuuuuuge payday - some wags claim he pocketed a couple of dozen million in the deal but that's just idle speculation, you know the kind we all love to traffic in about someone we don't like. Quinn's tenure as a board member probably matched his failure as the managing partner of an NHL team but the sendoff didn't involve millions or even a gold plated Casio G Shock. His departure from the Board of Ed probably carried more of the ignominy he deserved for losing the Coach of the Year the GM of the Century plus two of the top skaters in the league. So why dig this up now? Isn't there a statute of limitations on failed Board of Ed members? Funny you should ask but this past week Larry felt inspired to fire a little broadside at Buffalo teachers and their grizzled union boss Phil Rumore. It'd be one thing to just play that little management card guys like Larry always play when they try to weaponize the tensions over something like remote learning and turn parents against their kids' teachers. We've all seen it, they do it whenever a contract negotiation isn't going the way the district wants. Poison the waters with some suggestions that these teachers aren't being reasonable, that they seem to care more about buying another Tesla and vacationing in Cabo more than they care about little Trevor and Olivia's education. Remember a while back when East Aurora published some of the negotiations in the paper in an effort to demonize teachers with the greedy, lazy don't gaf about the kids card? So Lars did what rich white guys like him are known to do. He threw some shade at teachers and their union President. The problem is HOW he did it.
Here's the opening from his Another Voice piece in the Buffalo News:
"I spoke to a friend yesterday who is aligned with Phil Rumore and the teachers union. He initially told me the schools were closed because they are following the science. Halfway through the conversation he told me the real problem – more than 1,000 teachers were apparently threatening to go on strike if the Buffalo Public Schools opened."
He just had to play the Insider card with the rest of us peasants. You know the other day I was talking with one of my kind of people who actually hobnobs with lowbrows like Phil Rumore kind of vibe. And I know what the rest of you dopes think but let me share what really went down because it's only fair that guys of my stature should enlighten the rest of you rubes when I get the scoop through my well placed sources. Sources the rest of you lack. And when it's all boiled away the guy says with a straight face that 1,000 BTF members have conspired under cover of night to launch an illegal strike the first week of school. These would be people who lost sumer school jobs for the most part. And Home Instruction jobs too more than likely. Also people who are going to be faced with child care expenses should their own kids be put on remote learning. Come Fall a lot of these teachers will not be bringing in their coaching stipends either. A sad number of teachers wait tables for extra cash. They too will be out of luck. If you're missing the larger picture which by now I'm pretty sure you're not, BTF members would be hard pressed to sign up for an activity that will dock them two days pay for every day they strike when most of them have been without a paycheck since June. Anyone who's ever had the misfortune of cashing one of those Taylor Law deduction post-job action checks will tell you it's downright painful. And anyone in the current day late and dollar short state of America in Covid who thinks taking a two day hit for every day on the picket is a good move might not be smart enough to teach your kids.
Quinn goes on to cite science about droplets and infection rates and quotes a like minded NY Times writer who claims dropout rates will soar if kids and teachers aren't forced back into poorly ventilated buildings lacking proper staffing, PPE, cleaning procedures and Covid testing. Isn't dying from getting sick in an unsafe school building the ultimate form of dropping out? And shouldn't a bon vivant like Quinn even here in small town Buffalo have the sense to understand that many of these minority kids he claims to care so much about live in multi-generational homes with elderly relatives whose health issues could make them more susceptible to bad outcomes should they contract the virus? Maybe it's time to put away the sailboats and that put a hair up our guy's Topsider. Hard to say exactly but if floating lame brained conspiracy theories supposedly gleaned from inside sources is all Larry Quinn has to to with himself these days maybe he should go put his name on the sub list in City Hall. Put your money where your mouth is Lars, show those teachers how it's done.
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