WFAA News 8 in Dallas has broken a story about an elementary school principal in Coppell, TX, that has used school funds to groom, immunize, and hospitalize his fanciful French poodle, Buddy.
Parents are frustrated. Taxpayers are outraged. And school officials are circling the wagons to defend the principal’s outrageous slush fund as an essential benefit to Lakeside Elementary.
It never ceases to amaze me when ethical boundaries are crossed by popular educators and their lapses are routinely dismissed or defended against honest questions by those who pay the bills. Though, I suppose, the political environments of government-supported institutions are appropriate venues for such shenanigans. Theological education for Southern Baptists, however, should have higher standards of fiscal responsibility.
During my early days in seminary, I paid little attention when friends of mine were awarded jobs watching, walking, and waiting on the presidential pooches. As time passed, however, I began to think that the seminary-funded job of dog-sitter, complete with tuition scholarships, was far beyond any reasonable allocation of institutional resources.
Of course, when you ask those questions about an elementary school principal, people understand. When you ask them about a seminary president, you get nowhere. No accounting. No questions answered. Just counter-accusations and obfuscations.
WFAA’s story can be found here.
The Baptist Blogger 
First of all, it makes me wish that Sloan would have had a dog while he was president of Baylor. :) That would have been a great job to have! I love dogs.
But, talking about ethical behavior, or more particularly; what about ethics in general? You know, I’ve never had an ethics class. Well, at least not an overt ethics class. I’ve been in many classes where we talked about ethics, but it wasn’t the focus of the class.
Are there any books or reading material that would be good for me if I wanted to read specifically on ethics? Do you know of any graduate programs with degrees in ethics?
Just curious.
Tim Dahl
I remember reading about the time Billy Graham started his ministry. He sought wise counsel and they told him two things:
One was appoint a board to oversee and control things. Preferably not “family”.
The other was publish his salary and all the other financials. How wise that was! Note that I presume that info is still available but I haven’t checked. But it’s a great idea.
Wonder if SBC – NAMB – IMB et al ever has such great ideas?
For the record, paing a dogsitter with tuitions or any other sub rosa form of CP funds is as ridiculous as it sounds. No wonder it’s secret (if indeed that’s what’s going on).
Whoops. Can’t figure out how to change my name like I did on blogger. Sorry.
Bob Cleveland