Members of the school board,

I was on the Jackson High School robotics team for three years. Patrick Woolfenden is the adult who builds the team’s robot. This is why the team is a world champion. The students have almost no role in building the robot.
At first it bothered me to pretend we build the robot, but I got used to it after a while. It was obvious that the Cascade and Everett teams didn’t do this, but Jackson did and that became my new normal. You go to competitions, pretend the students built the robot, the “losers” at Cascade and Everett and almost every other high school play by the rules, and Jackson crushes them. That started to feel normal after a while. At first I felt ashamed to be doing and thinking these things, but by the end of my first year on the team, those feelings became dulled in my heart. When people talk about corrupting our youth, I think this is what they mean.

I was supposed to learn how to work as part of a team, build a robot, develop my skills, and grow as a person. What I actually learned is how to silence my conscience. I learned to invert my sense of morals because cheating without getting caught meant you were smart. Playing by the rules isn’t admirable, it means you’re stupid. I learned if you’re cheating, it’s important to use your power to intimidate the people in your organization to keep them from speaking out. I learned the importance of shutting down dissent if you want to keep a secret. I learned the value of purging an organization of anyone brave enough to speak up because people who are brave are a threat and people who can be intimidated are useful. I learned that you can do almost anything if people are afraid and that fear is how you control and manipulate the weak and that duty, honor, and integrity are just ideas. Fear is real and fear is power. I learned that the administrators who should be asking questions, intentionally don’t, so they can deny knowing about what is going on if anyone important finds out. I learned that adults often care more about keeping their job than doing their job and if the kids they are supposed to protect have to suffer, then kids have to suffer. The most important thing I learned is that adults don’t always step up to protect kids. I think the world is filled with abused children and corruption, not because no one cares or knows, but because the people that do care and know are too afraid to speak out or too apathetic to do anything other than take the path of least resistance.

I don’t think the district’s precious tax dollars should be spent on a bunch of adults building a robot. If Patrick wants to build a robot, he should pay for it himself.
We have a tough road ahead of us. Coach Pihl and Patrick aren’t fools. They’ve been at this a long time and done a thorough job of intimidating the students. Coach Pihl claims to be close friends with Superintendent Saltzman and claims they go to lunch together any time anyone questions the way the team is run. But we have advantages too. There are hundreds of students who have gone through the program at this point and every day it gets harder to keep their secret. Most importantly, we have the truth.