about the acting principal. The department heads, counselors, and teachers also started to set their own rules. Being placed in such a tough situation, a weak person would have been totally broken, but the acting principal stood her ground, asserted her authority and established discipline within a few weeks. It was a superhuman task.In high schools, between the teachers and building administrators, stand the department heads. My curiosity peaked when I noticed that almost all department heads, other than home economics and special education, were men, in all five South Bend high schools. What I learned was that these were all appointees of men principals, hanging on to their jobs, wielding whatever little authority they could claim over their fellow teachers. The culture of male domination governed this low level of administration as well.Coming to the top level of administration, the South Bend School Corporation never had a woman superintendent in its entire history until five years ago when the present superintendent was appointed. She got the job by default when three outside finalists, all men, declined the offer. She had not been ranked among the finalists despite the fact that she had been a very successful principal in the corporation, with a national reputation as an educator. Being a woman and an African-American were two strikes against her. Her appointment divided the teachers and the community at large along racial lines. A prolonged and bitter teachers strike further divided the community. In spite of her accomplishments in bringing about fiscal discipline and solvency to the corporation, she barley got re-appointed for two short years after the first three-year term. Efforts are mounting to release her even before the two years are up. Resistance against the superintendent by the combined forces of antifeminist and anti-minority groups in the school system itself and the larger community have paralyzed her...
