Schools

2 Cars And a Flash Mob, Inspiring Ways To Say Goodbye

You will not stop believing in the lasting legacy of a principal when you view this video from Massachusetts and remember these cars from Brandon and Armwod students.

You can't watch the video of retiring principal Roger Boddie on the roof of his Hingham Middle School in Massachusetts, surprised by the flash mob below, without thinking about the two cars Lyle Flagg received back here at home.

In a world rich with stock options, contracts and bonuses, it's the richer man in education who receives the undying love of his student body and school community, as illustrated with both the 2013 Hingham flash mob and the Lyle Flagg's cars, presented in 1974 and 1990.

In Hingham, Boddie thought he was taking a television crew on a tour of the construction site of the new Hingham Middle School. But once they got to the roof and looked down, Boddie knew that he had been had.

"I thought you guys really wanted a video of the building," he said, as "Don'd Stop Believing," the music of Journey, blared from the speakers, as students held up signs with individual letters that collectively spelled out, "Thank You For Believing In Us."

"Isn't that something?," said Boddie, who was retiring after 36 years in the business. "This can't be. This cannot be."

But isn't it nice that it was — both now and then — that some people do their jobs so well, and for the right reasons, touching the lives of so many, that it warrants a heartfelt gesture of student- and teacher-interest to drive the point home on a grand scale.

In our local case, the cars were for Lyle Flagg, a World War II veteran, who after his 85 years of life came to an end May 21, 2103 is being remembered as the consummate educator who helped shape a town.

A World War II veteran, Flagg opened Brandon High School at its Victoria Street location and he opened Armwood High School, where the stadium is named in his honor. He was principal of East Bay High School and what was then Pinecrest High School and Dowdell Junior High School. He served as president of both the Greater Brandon and Greater Riverview chambers of commerce and as a trustee for Brandon Regional Hospital.

Lisa Rodriguez was a student at Brandon High when nickels, dimes and dollars were raised to buy a car for Flagg, who before that had been riding a motor scooter to Brandon High School, where he served as principal from 1968-1974, according to his son Howard Flagg.

Flagg as principal "was always out in the hallways, walking around, joking with kids," Rodriguez said. "But he could mean business, too. If someone got out of line, he reined them back in. He had a knack for getting kids to do what he wanted them to do. He wanted them to excel."

As for the car?

"He loved that little car we bought him," Rodriguez said,  "He drove it and he drove it and he drove it and he wouldn't get rid of that car."

But he did, years later, when the student body at Armwood raised money to buy Flagg a car as well, with one condition — that students be allowed to take a sledgehammer to the car that Brandon students had given him in 1974.Flagg, as the charter principal, opened Armwood in 1984. He retired in 1990 from the school, and the Hillsborough County School District, where between his tenures at Brandon and Armwood served as director of secondary education.


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