BBB'S HEARING PROBLEM

Schools CEO Byrd-Bennett has a hearing problem. After 20,000 people turned up at neighborhood community meetings to voice their anger over proposed school closings, BBB heard it this way.

"Everybody got it that we really needed to close schools..."

Then when one parent after another got up at Tuesday's press conference voicing concerns about their children's safety, passing through dangerous neighborhoods to get to their receiving school, BBB responded by saying she no time for adults who use the "excuse of gangs to keep children trapped in failing schools."

When civil rights advocates insisted that school closing policies targeting black neighborhood schools violated equal protection and were a sign of institutional racism, BBB heard it as an attack on her own civil rights bona fides and responded this way:

"But what I cannot understand and will not accept is that the proposals are racist" ["They are!" voices call out]. She went on to say, charges of racism "insult her as a woman of color." 

The CEO is obviously hard of hearing, especially when it comes to listening to voices from the community.