The Herald staff has crossed paths with Principal Ron Booth many times at Arapahoe High School, both as students and reporters. Each experience left us with the feeling that Booth was a man who knew what he was doing, a man who felt a bit complacent in his position of power. Not once did we expect the response we got when interviewing him about the 7 News investigation he was featured in on Feb. 19.

For the first time from Mr. Booth we saw remorse. He repeated often that, “I err on the side of the student. If I could do this over again, I would have handled it differently.”

For the first time, we were able to describe the man as deflated. For the first time, we saw him as being bitterly honest and open. We have all heard Booth explain his ideology of keeping kids in the loop with accurate information, but until this moment, even we were skeptical on the legitimacy of those statements. As he stood in front of our journalism classroom, answering questions from all of the reporters, we sensed a new openness, a plea with us to understand that his actions were not meant with any intent other than to “save a kid.”

7 News investigator Tony Kovaleski had hit Booth’s Achilles heel. Kovaleski brought negative attention upon Arapahoe for a situation that was only the fault of one man. If you know anything about Booth, you know he loves this school. He calls walking down the halls of Arapahoe during a passing period and seeing all the students, “professional therapy.” He teared up when explaining the significance of the portrait in the main hallway with the caption “Two Arapahoe students just a few years ago.” It is undeniable that Booth has only the best interest of Arapahoe in mind when he makes decisions.

Kovaleski sensationalized an issue that was much more of a moral issue than anything that would constitute a legitimate investigation. The truth is, Booth broke no district or school rules in purging the grades on his granddaughter’s transcript. Unfortunately, Kovaleski took the low road and tried to expose Booth as a criminal who had outlandishly changed his relative’s grades for purely personal reasons. Kovaleski was wrong.

Also wrong was the person who chose to divulge the transcript of Booth’s granddaughter. This person violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. According to Superintendent Scott Murphy, “It was a violation of federal law. We are actively pursuing and investigating this. The protection of the students’ privacy is extremely important.”

The final person at fault in this situation was our principal himself. Despite his good intentions, he still made a mistake.

However big or small you may believe that mistake was, everyone must admit that the actions taken were not the best choice. Booth should have followed rules by letting others know of the actions he took with this transcript and sought permission to do so, unfortunately he did not. Of course, he validated and defended his actions in our interview by explaining, “I would probably do it again for any other student.”

Even Booth admits the mistake he made and he has fixed the transcript to now include the grades that were in question.

He also has a pertinent message for the student body about choices.

“When your parents had you they never said, ‘good, here is the perfect child.’ The greatest critics of teenagers are teenagers themselves. Don’t be so hard on yourself. No one expected you to be perfect. Learn from your mistakes and don’t repeat them.”