Did Channel One commit a crime at Elkview Middle School? Principal Messinger was kind not to file charges against the youth marketing company.
Channel One’s own contract says: D (7) Upon termination of this Agreement, Channel One shall have the right but not the obligation (our emphasis) to remove the Equipment from the School at Channel One’s expense. Channel One will not be required to remove any wiring.
Channel One also states it is not definite that they will remove ANY equipment even if the contract is continually violated: D(6) ChannelOne may (our emphasis) terminate this Agreement upon the occurrence of any of the following events :(i) if the School breaches its obligations under this Agreement; (ii) if the number of Qualified Students in the School declines at any time during any three-year term of this Agreement from the number of Qualified Students at the beginning of the three-year term by more than 25% or falls below 250; (iii) if the satellite dish or any component of the receiving system or headend equipment is damaged, destroyed or stolen; (iv) if Channel One determines in its reasonable discretion that the number of television sets damaged, destroyed or stolen at the School is excessive; (v) if participation by the School in the Network violates any law, ordinance or regulation; (vi) if Channel One determines in its sole discretion that installing the School is not economically justifiable to Channel One; (vii) if Channel One ceases to provide the Network to other high schools or middle schools in the United States; or (viii) if the School shows Channel One News on fewer than 90% of the days on which the School is in session and Channel One News is transmitted.
Channel One starts to reclaim TVs at schools
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Elkview Middle School Principal Richard Messinger said he was startled upon returning from spring break to find several TVs missing from classrooms.
It wasn’t the work of thieves, though.
The sets apparently belong to Channel One News, a huge commercial enterprise that broadcasts 12-minute daily news segments in 8,000 secondary schools across the nation.
Under unclear circumstances, Channel One News sent someone to Elkview to reclaim its equipment. It was installed in 1990, the same year the company began broadcasting.
To Messinger, it’s no great loss. In fact, the news segments hadn’t even aired at Elkview lately because of a requirement that students spend more time on English and math, he said.
“It was a filler for us and we weren’t really getting anything out of it,” he said.
Miller said he notified Channel One that the school planned to cease showing its programming.
He said he was under the impression that the TVs became a school’s property if the school showed Channel One content for a number of years.
However, a Channel One representative contacted Messinger to say someone would come to retrieve the equipment.
Messinger said he told the caller not to come before checking with Chuck Wilson, facilities director for the school system.
Over spring break, a Channel One employee went to the school, gained entrance through a custodian and removed the equipment.
“He didn’t have anything from Chuck in the way of an order but he told the custodian he’d talked to Mr. Wilson,” Messinger said.
Wilson couldn’t be reached for comment Friday, but school system attorney Jim Withrow said he doubts Wilson told Channel One to “go in there and get your stuff.”
“That doesn’t sound like what he would say,” Withrow said.
Meantime, Channel One picked up TVs at Sissonville High School during the week before spring break, but that was expected, said assistant principal Nancy Walker.
“They gave us warning and we knew it was going to happen,” she said.
With a block schedule in place, in which students take four classes lasting 90 minutes each, there’s no time for the news broadcasts, Walker said.
But like Messinger, Walker said she believed the TVs became the school’s property after a few years.
Withrow said he didn’t know and would have to check.
“I remember looking into some of the agreements shortly after I was here, but I really haven’t had any reason to look at it until now,” he said.
The staff is working to retrieve the contracts, which are in storage at the central office, he said.
Channel One customer service manager Barbara Emerson said schools sign three-year contracts which are automatically renewed unless one side or the other cancels.
She said the company never relinquishes ownership of the equipment.
Emerson said schools aren’t charged to have the equipment removed and the company usually schedules pickup when students aren’t present.
Withrow said he’s not comfortable with what happened.
“I was certainly concerned that third parties could just enter a school and take property without saying something,” he said. “Whether those folks had a right to take it or not, it seems the manner in which it was done was a little precipitous and a little inappropriate. But I guess what’s done is done.”
Messinger said the TVs at his school were showing their age.
“Quite frankly, the televisions are outdated,” he said. “When they would break, we ended up having to have Kanawha County maintenance people take care of them.”
Messinger said there’s been growing reliance in recent years on educational Internet videos instead of TV programming in the classroom.
“We’re due to get whiteboards and projectors over the summer,” he said. “I suspect TVs will become pretty obsolete.”
Contact writer Zack Harold at 304-348-7939 or zack.har…@dailymail.com.
