Nelson: Prep story lesson for all

"I attended high school in Leavenworth, Kansas," Connie Taylor told me.

"In the federal prison?" I asked the department chairwoman of Midland University's psychology department.

"No," she answered. "I was let out on good behavior."

For decades, she said, "I've responded to that comment with, 'I was let out on good behavior.' That little line apparently is my defense mechanism when someone jokes about me being from Leavenworth."

Taylor knows well another reputation: Her son graduated last year from Creighton Prep.

"Sure," she said. "'One of those schools of the privileged.' 'Arrogant kids, arrogant parents.'

"I seriously never experienced these sort of people when (my son) was in school there," she said. "Hardworking, down-to-earth people — that's what I saw. But I know there's a reputation."

When I called Taylor on Thursday morning, she had yet to read the World-Herald article about the dozens of Creighton Prep football players being reprimanded by the school for the offensiveness of a planned scavenger hunt.

A few of the items on the list:

"A group photo with a topless chick," "a pic with a fat chick," "steal a (yarmulke) from a Jewish synagogue" and "get into a yelling fight with a stranger in public."

School officials determined that none of these activities was successfully carried out.

Prep Dean of Students Joe Ryberg summed up the offenses in the list: "Instructions promoted hazing, exploitation of women, theft and other conduct unbecoming of a Creighton Prep student."

I read the list two ways:

1. See — look at how superior those Prep boys think they are.

2. I bet those Prep kids and their parents hated to see this story. They will be hearing about this for years from friends or others as confirmation of previously held opinions of the school's students, or at least the jocks there.

Taylor and I spoke again after she read the article.

"It's all there, isn't it?" she said. "I first saw that the offensive actions weren't carried out and that school officials strongly addressed the problem.

"Did I have that initial reaction because I have a connection to the school?"

I asked if she worries that this incident now will be held up as an example of negative, pre-existing perceptions of Prep.

"I don't know about that. I'm really not worried."

I should note that my oldest boy attended, and my two youngest still attend, Millard schools, which have a reputation among some for suburban disconnect and snootiness.

As a rural Nebraska kid, I always held that perception before my kids went to school in Millard. For the most part, that perception has dissipated.

Conversely, I remember well the dread upon hearing any new embarrassing development in the Teena Brandon/Brandon Teena case in Richardson County. That's been a tough one for those of us from Richardson County to live down.

Taylor and I realized we both have, at different times in our lives, dealt with being "haves" as well as "have-nots." I've also found myself guilty of stereotyping "the privileged" and "crazy hillbillies" within seconds of each another.

We're hearing a lot of this sort of class-conflict language right now in the Occupy Wall Street protests.

Are you a 99 percenter? A 1 percenter? Are you sometimes one, then sometimes the other?

Are we perhaps, after years in a stagnating economy in which the gap increases between rich and poor, becoming more class-conscious?

And with that, more liable to make sweeping statements about groups of which we are not a member?

Am I turning into Barney? Or Rodney King? Can we all get along?

"Stereotyping is bad," Taylor said. "We all know that. We're taught that constantly.

"I just think this is one of those teaching moments — not just for these Prep players, but for any one of us ready to make a broad comment from any incident or perception."

Easy for one of them there snooty, ivory-tower academics to say.

Contact the writer:

402-444-1129, robert.nelson@owh.com

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