Relax, He's a Doctor

By Rachelle Bowden in News on Sep 30, 2006 6:46PM

Public humiliation seems to be the new fad sport. From "American Idol" to those people dressed as fruit that you see sometimes, everyone wants in on the chance to exploit themselves. Even still, we at Chicagoist are not sure if that was a smart move on Dr. Rich Mitchell's part.

Mitchell was hired as superintendent of High School District 228 in the south 'burbs in 2004. Apparently he and some of the board members are not unlike two positively charged ions, and have had their differences in the past. Mitchell even filed a breach of contract suit against the district. Presumably to blow off some job-related steam and maybe even bond through humor (hey, it could happen), he made a fake video using past interviews of new teachers, edited his own questions to things like "How many prescription drugs are you taking right now?" and "Is it true you make your students cage fight?" and showed it to all the teachers within the district during an institute day before school started. That's all well and good, you say; perhaps everyone got a grand old kick out of Mitchell's creative editing and swilled martini glass. That is, they did until he posted it in its entirety on the district's website.

Now, don't go running off to Youtube. (We looked already.) The video's been taken down at Mitchell's discretion. Why it went up at his discretion is anyone's guess. We would think the last thing a man with previous school board friction wants is more friction. Due to the bad press the incident has caused, not to mention general dunderheadedness, the board may look to ask for Mitchell's resignation at Tuesday's board meeting. It's a shame, really...he's only human, and what we saw was hilarious. We hope at least some of the kids saw it before its removal. Can you imagine your old high school superintendent making a vid like that? Rock.

Image via Margaret Lyons

Thanks, Shannon