Why does the school system have ethics rules?

Both the Sun and the Post have run a number of stories about the appearence of improper behavior by PG school CEO Andre J. Hornsby.

The school board's ethic rules prohibit "even the appearance of improper influence."

According to press reports, Beatrice Tignor, chair of the non-elected patronage school board is not concerned by Hornsby's apparent violation of the rules. There is no indication that the board plans to enforce its own rules.

Quoted by the Post, Howard Tutman, president of the County Council of PTAs, said the inquiries into Hornsby's conduct are "another distraction."

As far as the school board and PTA folks are concerned, Hornsby's apparent violation of the ethics rules is unimportant. That's a great message for the CEO and his employers to be communicating to the staff and public.

Obviously, the messages here are

• the rules are not important, and
• if rules are made to be broken, it's ok to violate the other rules too, right?

Wouldn't we be better off without the rules and accompanying hypocrisy?