Feelings‑First Leadership Skips Vetting

A major school district hired a superintendent with an implausible CV and, after his ICE arrest as a removable noncitizen, leadership responded with public appeals to 'empathy' rather than explaining due‑diligence failures or next steps. The episode illustrates a pattern where institutional elites default to therapeutic messaging and identity cues instead of concrete governance. That rhetorical reflex can mask, and even enable, basic competence breakdowns. — If empathy ritual routinely displaces accountability, public institutions risk losing legitimacy and performance in critical services like education.