Here's the letter:
Terry L. Simpson / Superintendent Guthrie Public Schools

I read with some shock, concern and indignation at your recent comments in the Guthrie News Leader. I will assume, for the purposes of this letter, that your recollections and conclusions are colored by the passing months since our conversation. At the time of our discussion, I had been trying to contact you for quite some time. Each time I called, which I did at least 4 times over a 2-week period, I was told you would be given the message to return my call. You never did. I finally made contact with you when Rex Hogan called me concerning a news article he was writing. I expressed to him that I had been trying to reach you. He said “She’s right here if you want to talk to her.” That phone conversation took place in late April and is the one and only time I have ever spoken with you.

You are correct in indicating that I was not happy with the direction of the Guthrie News Leader blog. As you might recall, I was very upset at the time and felt that Guthrie News Leader personnel were not doing their job of monitoring the forum. As anyone logging onto this site is informed, certain rules are observed and violators of the guidelines will be subject to deletion or being banned. During this time, several unsubstantiated and deliberate personal attacks were being carried out against several employees of the Guthrie School District. As Superintendent, I have always been aware and accepted that I am in a public position. I indicated to you, at that time, that as a public official I certainly expect to be second-guessed, criticized, and even upon occasion, attacked. That comes with the job. I was not prepared, or willing, for employees to take the heat for decisions the district or I had made. When innocent people, giving their best every day for our school system and the students that attend Guthrie Public Schools, are subjected to very hurtful and slanderous comments, I become defensive. I did express that I felt allowing anonymous postings only facilitated the propagation of slander and innuendo with no factual basis. You indicated to me, in the conversation, that you would look into what was being posted and consider the future benefit of the blog in its’ current format. I asked you to please call me back and let me know of your decision, which you agreed to do. You, also, asked me to write a periodic column to be placed in the Guthrie News Leader to which I answered that I would wait until you returned my call and give you an answer at that time. I am still awaiting your call.

Let me be clear. I am an absolute believer in free speech, but there is a reason that letters to the editor are not published unless they are signed. Why then allow people to spread hurtful and untrue rumors on a website? Ms. Ramsey, you try to color your recitation of our conversation by suggesting that I must somehow not believe in free speech. This is not true and unfair.

What is, also, absent from the article is any mention of my expression of hope that the quality and accuracy of the reporting in the Guthrie News Leader would improve. A reporter from the Guthrie News Leader has been in attendance in only 4 of the last 13 school board meetings and no reporter attended either of the community wide meetings to discuss the bond issue. In the last several months, we have witnessed sporadic and inaccurate reporting on school issues. Not only has content been wrong, but even the headlines, on the front page, have misquoted the amount of the bond proposal currently being sought. Erroneous information was, also, abundant during the last bond issue proposal. This truly makes it difficult when trying to keep the community informed.

As a new school year begins, Guthrie Public Schools will again, as we have done in the past, submit to the Guthrie News Leader more news articles and pictures, written and taken by school personnel, than will ever get printed. The idea of withholding such information from the local paper was never stated or inferred in our conversation.

The Guthrie Public School district is one of the finest in the state due to the efforts of some of the best administrators, teachers and support staff found anywhere. These people are working hard every day, giving their best for the youth of our community while the Guthrie News Leader is providing a public avenue for anyone with internet access to say anything, unsubstantiated, without identifying themselves. This supposedly makes them free to express their thoughts and ideas. Actually, what it does is make them unaccountable for their words and attacks. Anyone can say anything under the veil of anonymity.

I would like for you to know, Ms. Ramsey, that we are sincerely doing our best to make the school system a positive, attractive part of this community. We are turning away many parents that live outside our district who want to transfer their children into our schools. Our teachers are second to none in their talent and training and devotion to their students. Not only are they giving of their time during the day, but nights and weekends, as well.

As I stated 4 months ago during our conversation I would wait upon your answer as to your plans for the blog and what efforts you would take to stop the unsolicited attacks upon school employees, excluding myself, before I gave an answer to your request. As stated earlier, I am still awaiting that call.

I will tell you that I do not feel that I can write a regular column for a paper that doesn’t abide by its’ own policies and continues to promote a forum for people to anonymously attack, defame and vilify innocent people.

Ms. Ramsey, I certainly feel that my conversation with you did not constitute an “ultimatum.” The Guthrie School District does not advertise, nor does it pay for ads, except for employment possibilities. There has always been only one “spokesperson” for the school district, which is normal in most districts. As Superintendent, I am in that position for Guthrie Public Schools.

With that being stated, I do not intend to respond to future editorials, presented in such an unethical and unprofessional manner, regarding phone conversations more than 4 months old. I will not engage in printed banter, which I know would increase sales for your newspaper, when your returning a telephone call would have taken care of the matter.

In closing, I would like to say our school district deserves better than what has been printed. As stated earlier, our employees are doing an outstanding job of educating and taking care of the needs of our students. Through the efforts of teachers and staff, our district is continually improving the quality of education in Guthrie Public Schools and I thank each and every one of them.
Terry L. Simpson
Superintendent Guthrie Public Schools