Accountability, Responsibility and Integrity

As parents we try to teach and mold our children in ways that allow them to grow into functioning, successful, well-adjusted members of society. Among what we teach them is "Do not lie", "Do not hurt others", "Admit when you make a mistake". These 3 basic things allow our children to grow and thrive, have integrity and be successful in personal and business dealings.  Whether they become a garbage collector, a mechanic or doctor - these tenets all apply to all relationships.

What we have seen from Robert Adams and his family over the last 3 months has been the opposite of what we strive to teach our children.  We have seen the lies ("The school is opening September 6!"), the hurting of others (the verbal assaults on non supporters) and the failure to accept responsibility ("Its a conspiracy!").  Not once has a Robert Adams or a member of the Adams family said "We made a mistake", how does this fare well for raising a generation of responsible and accountable adults?  Surely as an employer, one would hope, Robert Adams would not have tolerated this behavior from a staff member.

A child throws a baseball and breaks a neighbor's window.  This is a classic scenario from some of our childhoods.  Did we blame the neighbor for having a window there, or worse, say it was already broken? Did we lie and say we weren't the one throwing the ball?  Do we call our neighbor names for having the audacity to want the window repaired?  We may have but hopefully our parents taught us through example to say "I am sorry my ball broke your window.  Please tell me how much it will cost to be repaired and I can pay you $X a week until I have paid the cost". We own our mistakes.  We try to fix them to the best of our ability and if we cannot undo the action, we find a solution to make the person harmed whole again.

We have seen the building code violation reports.  We have seen the thrash surrounding the business license. We have seen the lack of repayment to parents owed.  We have seen the Adams family and their supporters' hurtful words.  We have seen duplicity and a vital need to hide information from the very people being asked to help support this charade. What we haven't seen is an apology for the deception. We haven't seen an admittance to the building and safety issues.  We haven't seen evidence of integrity or honesty. What are the values they were instilling in our children?

We have maintained our position regarding the sexual abuse allegations.  We do not know what happened in those situations.  What we do know is that things were very, very wrong at Creative Frontiers School long before July 18 and they have continued to be wrong since. Unfortunately it appears that Mr. Benedek has also learned to not take responsibility and not be honest as evidenced by the denial of his business application. Will the Adams family tell their supporters that Creative Frontiers School will not be opening or like the other truths that have been revealed, will they continue to lie, avoid responsibility and hurt others?