Gerald Ott of Ankeny was a high school English teacher and for 30 years a school improvement consultant for the Iowa State Education Association.

When I look at the picture of the Des Moines Public Schools board of directors, I think of the Kingston Trio’s song “It Takes a Worried Man.” In the midst of a crisis, we’re all worried. it’s the last line of the refrain that buoys me: but I won’t be worried long.

It takes a worried man to sing a worried song, oh yes
It takes a worried man to sing a worried song
It takes a worried man to sing a worried song
I’m worried now, but I won’t be worried long

One last word about Dr. Roberts

I recommend Jason Benell’s recent Bleeding Heartland essay, previously published on his Substack newsletter, The Odd Man Out. He gives us a different, eye-opening perspective on the case of the Des Moines Public Schools’ former superintendent, Ian Roberts.

The columnist Chris Espersen shared her perspective in the Cedar Rapids Gazette on October 12. Espersen is a Des Moines parent, a close observer of Roberts, and has had many opportunities to see his student-whispering magic up close. Espersen saw the same potential that then-Des Moines School Board president Teree Caldwell-Johnson must have seen when she recommended that Roberts be hired.

My first encounter with Dr. Ian Andre Roberts was at a welcome dinner in the fall of 2023. In a room full of educators, policymakers, and attorneys dressed in finery and sneakers the energy was invigorating; the pride was palpable. My daughter was starstruck when she met him, yet he got on her level and with the warmest smile asked her what mattered to her.

In Espersen’s view, Roberts delivered. In fact, every picture I saw of Roberts in The Des Moines Register confirmed Espersen’s take. Too bad his passport didn’t say USA. Or maybe it’s too bad the ICE office in DC or wherever turned down his petition for citizenship. Espersen says Dr. Roberts “gave us something to believe in. More than anything.” Espersen felt, he wanted our kids to believe in themselves and know that they belonged. To Espersen, his legacy will not be forgotten.

If Roberts had been a coveted big-league baseball pitcher with a 100 MPH fastball, even one fresh from Guyana, it would be easier for most to give him a break. A fastball pitcher, even one with blemishes, is more valued in the U.S. than a child-whisperer whose magic is with students. Roberts was no saint, but many kids saw in his foot races a reason to stay in school and attend to their lessons.

Too many Iowans see undocumented persons as criminals

I know a goodly number of Iowans see any undocumented person living in the U.S. as prima facie evidence of criminality, worthy only of immediate deportation. Those folks won’t find much support for that point of view here. Like Benell, I’m aiming for the bigger picture.

Different set of facts, but I see some similarity in stories of Pascual Pedro-Pedro from West Liberty, Iowa, and the 17-year-old Nory Sontay Ramos, a California high school girl who stepped off a flight from San Antonio into a country she hardly recognized: Guatemala. Both were here for years without authorization, but their illegitimacy pales when compared to the conditions in their country of birth that caused their parents to seek shelter in the United States. Roberts is from Guyana, but he’s lived in the United States for nearly 30 years.

I get Benell’s point about Roberts. The man is over age 50 (about the same age as my two daughters) but has a few barnacles on his rap sheet, and there may be more. But, as Benell reasons, what if it had turned out that Roberts had indeed been a citizen? Would any of the new facts have mattered? Not under Iowa law. He would be entitled to his guns, his cash, his freedom, his license, and his job.

There’s also the story of Roberts, a young man here on an athletic scholarship, a man who completed his BA degree at a respected Historically Black University and was an Olympian who ran track for another university where he earned a master’s degree. He was in the U.S. on a college-study visa and attended another venerable university for several years, trying to get his doctorate while working full time. He came close, but he stumbled and decided to finish his degree at a valid, but far less prestigious, online university.

Maybe St. Louis Schools or Millcreek Community School District in Pennsylvania didn’t care that his degree was not solid gold, or that his visa was due to expire in a brief time. He wanted to be a citizen, but wasn’t allowed, so he felt compelled to lie. It’s easy to be irate after the fact. That’s called Monday-morning quarterbacking.

Outdated immigration system

As it stands, Benell says, Roberts may be undeserving of an Iowa superintendent’s job, yet he is illustrative of the holes in our out-dated federal immigration policy. President Donald Trump, the entire Iowa Congressional delegation, and the majority in Congress refuse to update immigration policy, preferring the Wild West circus of an indiscriminate catch-and-deport policy where masked ICE enforcers are rounding up people on the job or in the street. One man, a long-time resident with three U.S.-born sons serving in the military, was kicked to the ground as if he were a common criminal.

I am yet to see a case in Iowa where ICE has caught and deported a hardened criminal. My ears are pricked.

The 200 Venezuelans working at a slaughterhouse in Ottumwa were not criminals, but deported. They were making a home here and, by newspaper accounts, contributing to the local society. In fact, they had work permits issued by the Biden administration because of the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. The UN reports 7.7 million people had left Venezuela in the last ten years. Many were holdup in Columbia (no safe place) hoping the 2024 election would displace the tyrant dictator Nicolás Maduro. Instead, Maduro muscled his way back into power after losing the election at the ballot box.

Interestingly, María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader, has just won the coveted Nobel Peace Prize.

The entirety of the Western Hemisphere is in some measure of crisis. The UN reports there are 20 million displaced persons, more than half children, on the move in the Western Hemisphere. Movement is monitored by the drug cartels who use violence to extract profit from trafficking migrates. We won’t have peace at home if our neighbors to the south are not our friends.

Yet, American high school kids don’t much study South America, a region rich in resources and geographically much closer to our country than China. Except for Mexico, these countries are as prone to trade with China as with Trump’s tariff-laden U.S.

But we won’t be worried long

Right now, I see that the Des Moines School Board has accepted responsibility as (very, very uncomfortable, unfortunate, unwelcome) facts showed up. The district has a new interim superintendent, Matt Smith. The impending vote on board membership and the bond issue is still on track. All in a week of extreme worry.

The school board recently said in a statement published by the Des Moines Register,

From the moment we learned of Roberts’ arrest and immigration status, the school board’s attention has been focused on leading the district and advocating for transparency and accountability to protect the 30,000 students and their parents and 5,000 teachers in Des Moines Public Schools, as well as our community. Imagine a teacher trying to explain to a second-grader why their larger-than-life superintendent wasn’t coming back to school.

This board has rolled with the punches, taken body blows, and been bad-mouthed by every yahoo in the country. I read a post from a guy living in Hollywood, Florida who wanted the whole board fired immediately. He didn’t mention “tar and feathers,” but someone else did. Those unkind words included “out on a rail,” whatever that means. And then there were those cute “Music Man” analogies, which I would find amusing under different circumstances.

More from the school board’s latest statement:

Our role in this crisis, writes the board president, has been to bring accountability and find the facts. Some of us were not on the board or in board leadership at the time. Regardless, we know the board must do better also and we are reflecting on our role moving forward to ensure transparency and ownership. We’ve appreciated receiving messages of support from our community as we have sought out the facts. But we have also seen patently false narratives, hateful rhetoric, threats to our safety and other unhinged messages.

The trash talk has been awful, and (although I haven’t read all of them), the threats to life and limb are too standard, automatic for too many in our extended community. There are angry people across the state whose only interest is to tarnish the reputation of the people on the board, and specifically the president Jackie Norris, who is one of four excellent candidates running for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate.

The Roberts fiasco came on Norris’s plate unexpectedly. Kind of like a tornado or flash flood. Usually, the neighbors show up with chainsaws, food, first aid—and the governor comes with cash. This should be the case here. Instead of hot dishes, bring “yes” voters to the November election.

As a former Des Moines Public Schools patron, I am not interested in second guessing or hammering this board for a seemingly (at the time) wise decision that didn’t pan out—in the worst way possible. As least Dr. Roberts didn’t send titillating messages on his school computer … that we know of, anyway.

The new interim superintendent, Matt Smith, looks like a Gerald Ford type to me. Ford took the nation’s reins when Richard Nixon’s crimes caught up with him.

Ford’s address to the nation concluded with a reading of the formal proclamation. You can read the full text of Ford’s speech on Voices of Democracy website. 

In his address, Ford outlined several key points supporting his decision:

He believed the nation needed to move beyond the scandal, shifting focus from “the pursuit of a fallen President to the pursuit of the urgent needs of a rising nation”.

Ford described the pardon as an act of compassion.

He concluded that the former president had already endured significant punishment, citing the shame and disgrace to his office and the unprecedented penalty of resigning. Ford also mentioned the potential health risks to Nixon from ongoing legal issues.

Ford noted the lack of precedent for prosecuting a former president and questioned the possibility of a fair trial given the pre-trial publicity.