From education reporter Kris Sherman:

You can see the TV-shy Tacoma School Board on the Internet now, thanks to Chris Van Vechten and friends at the Melon Online Web site.

He sent me an e-mail this morning, referencing a story I wrote recently on the School Board nixing the idea of televising their meetings. (The Tacoma City Council and lots of other local electeds appear on the tube when they meet.)

"After reading your article, my friends and I decided to take action," Van Vechten wrote to me today. Attached was a link to The Melon, which carries the headline "Ripe! Tacoma School Board Meeting 8/28/08.”

In the smaller print, the posters go on to say: “And so begins The Melon's video coverage of the Tacoma School Board. This week features discussions about the No Child Left Behind Act, the state of the Tacoma Education Association, a visit from Robert Hill and Rep. Troy Kelly, a generous donation of backpacks by Bank of America and more.”

[More:]

There are two links that will get you there. The first takes you right to the meeting video.

The second takes you the page explaining why Van Vechten and friends are lugging their video camera to Tacoma School District’s castle-like headquarters to tape the meetings and put them online for anyone who’s interested.

Robert "The Traveller" Hill

The Melon seems to have a fascination with Robert “The Traveller” Hill, a local gadfly and advocate for female masturbation who has been escorted out of Tacoma City Council meetings and banged out of order for some of his public comments.

During the School Board meeting last month, he introduced himself as Mr. Bates and then added something like: And because I’m very good at what I do, you can call me Master Bates. (I didn’t write it down, so I can’t claim it’s an exact quote, but I know what I heard.)

He also complained the school district’s health education textbooks don’t discuss a word that begins with “m” and ends with “n” and pointed out he’d been asked by School Board President Jim Dugan during a previous meeting not use the word, although it was clear he meant “masturbation.”

Hill, who showed up at a School Board meeting last year with a big purple sign advocating masturbation, figured prominently in the board’s decision not to televise its meetings. There were other reasons of logistics and cost (the board room isn’t properly equipped), but Hill and his comments were specifically mentioned. Board members also worried about others coming to grandstand on camera.

Van Vechten and company got Dugan’s blessing to haul in their camera and tape the meeting two weeks ago. They’ve posted the video, but Van Vechten apologized this afternoon for its quality. Seems The Melon’s primary video camera got confiscated by police when Joe La Sac got arrested during recent protests of Army Stryker vehicles being moved back to Fort Lewis through the Port of Tacoma.

Van Vechten, who lives in Puyallup, says he wants the School Board meetings available on videotape because it’s important, and he describes himself as “education junkie” whose “personal ambition is to revolutionize the education system.”

He promises better quality video in the future and an upgrade of the Web site this week.