Mathis puts DPS board at new low

The Detroit Public Schools board wiped clean its website of disgraced President Otis Mathis on Monday, quickly replacing a photo of Mathis with one of Anthony Adams, who became acting president after Mathis resigned Thursday.

But that hasty imagery enhancement is unlikely to restore credibility to the school board that elected Mathis as its leader in January.

In a March 4 column, when I reported on Mathis' inability to write a coherent sentence, I asked whether he had overcome disabilities or convinced people that an academically challenged school board president was a good choice to lead the nation's lowest-achieving big city district.

In retrospect, the rise of Otis Mathis to that leadership role says as much about the current Detroit Board of Education as it does about Mathis.

This is the body that unanimously elected Mathis over Tyrone Winfrey, a board member who is an academic officer at the University of Michigan.

Mathis has succeeded over the years by never admitting defeat when he failed. Unable to meet academic requirements, he found ways around them.

After graduating from Southeastern High School with a D-plus average, he got into Wayne State University in a program for the academically unqualified. When he failed to pass an English language writing exam required for graduation, he sued, claiming the exam discriminated against African-Americans. When the exam was dropped, a decade later, he duly received his bachelor of science degree.

Mathis was praised by his colleagues for his coolness under pressure and his lack of defensiveness: qualities that have stood him in good stead over the years, as he faced down challenges to his competency. As he told me in a March interview, his deficits had been written about before. "People make a lot of noise for a while and then it all blows over," he said.

Maybe he felt compelled to test how low expectations might really go.

Last week, when board-appointed school Superintendent Teresa Gueyser astonished most of us by filing a complaint with the DPS Office of Public Safety, alleging that Mathis had fondled himself repeatedly in front of her during one-on-one meetings, Mathis apologized for inappropriate behavior, then resigned. Within hours, though, he tried to rescind his resignation.

"In some ways, the health battle I am making will be better served by continuing on the board," wrote Mathis.

Even then, though, some DPS board members continued to defend him. Reverend David Murray, who is 58, described the 56-year-old Mathis as "a young man," who is still learning basic rules of deportment.

"Like I say, it's not that uncommon for people to behave in that fashion," he said Monday, "especially if the person is coming on to them. In most workplaces, they tell you you shouldn't have any social carrying on in the workplace."

Murray's willingness to dismiss Gueyser's sexual harassment complaint as a kind of courtship strategy is bizarre -- but it also helps explain why Gueyser waited so long to complain about behavior she said had been a regular feature of their meetings.

Mathis is gone now, and even Murray says that chapter is over, citing a 1977 Michigan attorney general's opinion deeming school board resignations final, once submitted.

Murray, who legally changed his first name from David to "Reverend," is now campaigning for a seat on the Wayne County Commission -- a $68,000 a year job. Who knows? Perhaps the school board of low expectations is a springboard to higher office.

lberman@detnews.com">lberman@detnews.com (313) 222-2032