I spent the afternoon holding my breath, hitting the refresh button on my computer over and over and over again as I waited for the Kansas City school district to unveil its “Right Sizing Plan.”

I would have liked to have been at the meeting, but my work schedule wouldn’t permit it, so here I sat – refresh, refresh, refresh.

The result? Zion’s school is not – as of today – on the chopping block. I thought I would jump, dance, sing, do the hokey pokey upon hearing this news.

But as I flipped through the news sites, I caught user comments:

Are you jealous that you can’t go to a nice high school? Those who are able to go to that school and in that district have worked hard, pay their way and have the ability to live wherever they want. They aren’t taking food stamps, welfare or anything else just to get by.

I assume this was a response to something – I can’t find the original comment.

Since Lincoln and Paseo have very specific criteria for admission, where are you going to stuff all the high school students from Westport, Northeast, Central and Southeast? 30 to 40 kids in a classroom???????

This was addressed in several meetings.

They manner in which the Kansas City School district has been operated and the poor quality of educational service provided justifies the closing of these schools. They are the eyesore and disgrace of an otherwise fine and growing city. CLOSE THEM NOW . CLOSE.

This person should know about poor education, since they can’t seem to spell anything right. The capital letters are an especially lovely touch. And where is the fine and growing city they’re referring to? I love my city, but “fine” and “growing” are definitely not words I would use to describe its current status. This was certainly a helpful comment, though, full of great ideas.

GREAT! That means their going tobe busing them into, what USED to be, the better schools.

Huh? Didn’t they all “used to be better schools”? Isn’t that kind of the point? I can’t figure out what this comment even means…

My child is not going to school with high school students. I geuss I will be leaving the district. Dr. Covington needs to go back to where he came from or he can cut some of his staff. I am sure that will save at least a million dollars.

Once again, if this person had attempted to be involved in her child’s school district, she would know that Dr. Covington has cut a huge amount of staff from the district level. HUGE. I’m guessing she’s mad at Obama too.

I think the athletic programs need to go first. These serve a select few and do not yield any useful results.

Uhm, thank you, commenter from Overland Park {for real – that’s what it said}. We certainly appreciate your input.

After reading through these comments, I wonder if anyone in the world has any interest in doing anything that can be considered even slightly productive?

I wonder if any of these people who are upset now made an attempt to attend a single School Advisory Committee meeting – each school has them.

I wonder if any of these people who are upset now made an attempt to attend a single District Advisory Committee meeting – they’re held once each month and open to the public.

I wonder if any of these people bothered to attend a Title I meeting – they’re also open to the public.

Did they try to call or write to a school board representative and make their opinions known?

Did they meet with the staff at their child’s school and say, “Excuse me, I have a full-time job, two other children and not much time, but is there any way I can help out here that doesn’t involve a huge time committment?”

Did they take the time to read a book, or learn about conflict resolution? Turn off “American Idol” and go to the library to research the problems that urban school districts encounter and proven ways to get past them? Maybe spend their Saturday afternoon participating in a community effort to prevent violence in schools?

Maybe this is judgmental, but something tells me they didn’t do any of these things – not. a single. one.

Wouldn’t it be lovely if each of these anonymous commenters devoted themselves to one project – low commitment level – to help make the district a better place for the children they’re concerned about? I think it would be a very different place.