If the shame of Wilfredo Laboy, School Superintendent of Lawrence, made it to the primetime and front page of the news in the main media outlets around the country it is due to the huge irony involved with this case and the crude way used to do it, which has shown the hypocrisy of the system and the double standard used by local and state authorities to assess their friends and the rest of the people.

It is indeed ironic that Superintendent Laboy had not been able to pass the English proficiency test when he had just terminated twenty-four Latino teachers who couldn’t show skill in the English language, a fundamental requirement now demanded from teachers in order to be able to teach in the state’s public schools.

Nobody should categorize professor Laboy as an inept within his field for not having a perfect punctuation or having some flaws in English grammar. There are foreign professionals in this country occupying high rank positions who, after living in the U.S. for more than 40 years, still need the assistance of their efficient secretaries to write a letter correctly of to improve their diction. And nobody judges their professional abilities.

But the same sort of understanding and consideration that the authorities of the Department of Education—among them commissioner David P. Driscoll and even governor Mitt Rodney—have shown toward Laboy should be extended to the teachers who did not pass the English test and to the students who do not pass the MCAS.

Unfortunately, there is a double standard here: Laboy will have a fourth opportunity to pass the “stupid” test. Meanwhile, he has kept his job and also obtained a juicy pay raise, increasing his salary to $156.560, which in this city of laborers is a slap on the face of the people. On the other hand, many of the teachers suspended from the schools are currently unemployed, or hammering nails and doing menial, jobs far from their education field.

By the same token, the students who don’t pass the MCAS, which is another “stupid” test anyway, are denied the High School diploma, thus closing on them the door into the future.

We can question the imposing personality of professor Laboy, who has created so much resistance in the city, and even criticize some of his programs, but we can’t ignore his professional capacity, the improvement he has brought to the schools, and above all, his passion for teaching.

We are not being critical about professor Laboy for failing the English test. But we believe that in this crisis he failed to show his position of leadership. As the highest figure within the school system of Lawrence, Laboy has the obligation of practicing what he preaches. To accept the failure and to try to make amends with humility would be an excellent way to become an example. One to be followed by teachers and students in the same situation he is right now.

Another display of leadership and understanding would be to give a helping hand to those colleagues who, like him, have to go through these ordeals. Laboy should follow the example of other superintendents in the state who have used their position and influence to keep good teachers who failed the English test in the schools, which is exactly where they belong.