Willie Wade, Milwaukee Alderman

Willie Wade thinks the rules don't apply to him.

Way to go, Willie! What a role model, literally teaching Milwaukee Public School kids that they don't have to listen to authority!

Dan Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports on the story. (Apparently, Bice doesn't have any scoops on extramarital affairs to write about at the moment.)

Suppose you went to a high school girls basketball game and were told by security staff to take off your hat before entering the gym.

What would you do?

You might think the rule is a little silly, but you'd go ahead and take off the hat, right?

Here's what you wouldn't do: Get into a heated debate, invoke your status as a city official and watch the thing escalate until the cops were called in.

But you're not Ald. Willie Wade.

Wade's overreaction to a simple request has many in Milwaukee Public Schools scratching their heads.

If an alderman doesn't abide by MPS' rules and gets into a "heated debate" instead of simply cooperating, are we really to expect that students should follow the rules?

If Wade has such a problem with the rule, then why doesn't he attend school board meetings and suggest that the rule be changed?

Instead, Wade chose to act like a punk.

...Wade is a frequent spectator at Milwaukee high school games. On Feb. 19, he brought two of his kids to Milwaukee Riverside to see his niece's team, Milwaukee Vincent.

By all accounts, the third-term alderman was stopped at the entryway and asked to remove his baseball hat.

He refused.

"I didn't want to take my hat off," Wade said last week.

It's that simple.

"I didn't want to take my hat off."

Are you kidding me?

So Ald. Wade is there with two of his kids and he decides to basically say, 'screw you' to security?

That was a horrible example to set.

It certainly wasn't the way to deal with the matter, getting "heated."

If Wade was going to be stubborn and not remove his cap, he should have left. Then, he should have taken steps to have MPS policy examined if he felt so strongly about wearing his hat at MPS events.

In short, Wade should have acted like a responsible adult.

But St. Aubin said the district has a policy prohibiting people from wearing hats or covering their heads with hooded sweat shirts.

She said schools have had a problem with students using their hats to express gang affiliation. The rule applies not just to students but also to adults.

"We need the help in modeling behavior," she said.

St. Aubin makes an excellent point -- "We need the help in modeling behavior."

That's key. That sort of help from parents and guardians and adults in general is critical in kids' success.

Why would Wade, an elected official, choose to act like a messed-up kid with a bad attitude in need of a good role model instead of being one?

...The request led to a heated argument between him and MPS security. Wade acknowledged that during the exchange, he emphasized that he was a city official. He said he was not invoking a new form of aldermanic privilege but was making the point that the district should do all it can to encourage more adults and city leaders to attend such events.

He must have made the point pretty forcefully.

It got so bad, St. Aubin said, that security eventually called for help from city police officers, who were already at the game. St. Aubin said the officers then escorted Wade from the building.

It's great to have adults attend MPS sporting events.

However, it's not great when those adults decide to act like thugs.

Wade believes that the school "district should do all it can to encourage more adults and city leaders to attend such events."

So rules put in place by MPS regarding hats and hoods should be ignored in an effort to get more adults to attend?

That's a crazy argument.

It's completely unreasonable.

Why not just remove the damn cap?

I wonder if Wade has any regrets about how he handled the situation. I hope so.