The St Aug paddling controversy: enough already!

Josephites' new leader disavows interview, says paddling must end at St. Augustine High School

By Bruce Nolan, The Times-Picayune The Times-Picayune

 The new superior general of the Josephites on Monday disavowed remarks attributed to him and published over the weekend that seemed to open the door to a reconsideration of corporal punishment at St. Augustine High School.

In an interview Monday, the Rev. William Norvel said the issue is closed: Paddling is dead.

He pointed to a written statement issued June 21 saying the administration of the Josephites "affirms the decision of the previous administration in July 2010 to end the practice of corporal punishment."

The weekend editions of the archdiocesan newspaper, the Clarion Herald, contained the first interview with Norvel since his election to the order's top post, in which he said he planned to listen "to both sides of the issue" before coming to a decision.

In the Clarion Herald interview, Norvel described meetings that he had either held or scheduled with various figures on each side of the dispute. Because of the need for extensive fact-gathering, he declined to say when he hoped to make a decision. He also compared his new role to an earlier experience in a divided parish in which he listened at great length before resolving a dispute.

The Clarion Herald said that interview was conducted June 17, three days after Norvel was elected superior general. Four days after the interview, the Josephite administration issued its unambiguous "no-corporal punishment" statement. But because of its print deadlines, Norvel's Clarion Herald remarks did not appear until this weekend.

Norvel, in a brief interview Monday, said he wanted to say nothing more than what was contained in the Josephites' written statement. Asked about the Clarion Herald story, he said it was "completely wrong."

Editor Peter Finney Jr., who conducted the interview and said he retains extensive notes from their conversation, said "I stand by the story."

Norvel and St. Augustine's local board of directors, which favors keeping some limited form of St. Augustine's 60-year tradition of paddling, are scheduled to meet for the first time by telephone conference call today, board chairman Troy Henry has said.

The months-long controversy involving St. Augustine, one of the region's most celebrated schools, is nominally over paddling, but more deeply touches on themes of school autonomy, Catholic identity, and racial respect between the predominantly white educational community and African-American alumni, parents and educators at St. Augustine.

Norvel, 76, also told the Clarion Herald he did not seek the job of superior general when the Baltimore-based order of about 80 priests gathered in mid-June in Washington to elect new leaders.

He said before the election his name was not in the running for the leadership post.

The 140-year-old order, born out of a British missionary society, was created to minister to newly freed slaves. Norvel becomes its first African-American superior general.