Pinellas' upsized ethics class heads to the dome

A millionaire is footing the bill. Educators hope the upbeat atmosphere will help teach character.

ST. PETERSBURG - It's not cheap to invite every ninth-grader in Pinellas to Tropicana Field on a school day for a quick education in ethics. Renting the Trop and running the buses costs $200,000, enough to pay five teachers for a year.

But a self-made multimillionaire thinks his 90-minute message is worth it. So 45-year-old Paul Hanlon, who made his money running a company that made displays for trade shows, will foot the bill for today's event, said Pinellas Education Foundation president Terry Boehm, who is excited about the program.

District officials say it will be the first time in recent history that anyone tried to move an entire grade of students to one spot at one time. It's a step on the road to meeting a new state law that requires schools to teach character.

Most Pinellas high school principals heard Hanlon speak for the first time at a superintendents' meeting two weeks ago. It was then that they were told of Superintendent Howard Hinesley's wish that their ninth-graders attend Hanlon's talk.

So permission slips went home, and the push was on to get the 10,000 ninth-graders in Pinellas public schools under one roof at one time. Officials expect about half that number to attend today. Those students who did not return permission slips will not attend.

Several principals quietly expressed concern about so many children missing a whole school day for a presentation lasting an hour and a half. Some point out that they have ethics education in their schools already.

But Boehm said sometimes big rallies and events make a greater impression on children than school-based programs.

"It's going to blow them out of their seats," Boehm said. "They're going to leave with some information about how to do the right thing and be a good person."

The conference, titled "Find Your Edge," will be led by Hanlon, who retired at 39 and lives in Largo. From a Web site he sells his book, Strategies of an Ordinary Multimillionaire ($22.50 plus $3.95 shipping and handling), in which the promotional material says he "shares rich insights, bold inspirations, and life experiences that enabled him to take a simple, unsophisticated business and create an industry giant."

Several speakers will join Hanlon, including four-time NASA space shuttle astronaut Greg Harbaugh and running back James Evans, who was with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1987. Evans is executive director of Tampa Bay Academy of Hope.

The conference, which mixes ethics, character education and career planning, is the kickoff for the Stavros Institute Ethics Program, a character education program for high school students, said education foundation president Boehm.

"Paul came (to the foundation) two or three months ago, about the time we were talking about launching the ethics program," Boehm said. "We're kind of using this big event to draw attention to the importance of the curriculum and the program for the ninth-graders."

The event also will launch a districtwide program for high school students called Career Cove, said Linda Jones, supervisor for Safe and Drug Free Schools.

"It's an initiative that's been designed by teachers in Pinellas County schools that will unify career experience, character education and ethics," Jones said.

Career Cove will be a first step in meeting a law that requires districts to begin teaching character education to all students by the start of the 2004-05 school year.

Jones said she has never heard Hanlon speak, but has been told he is dynamic.

"The message he has is one that's really designed to help kids make good choices for themselves, to be motivated and positive, to be people of good character, to stay in school, to do your best and resist drugs," she said.

Hanlon is one of about 300 volunteers with the district's speakers' bureau. He has been bringing talks titled "Success-limiting Behavior" and "Don't Let Being Labeled Keep You from Success" to Pinellas schoolchildren for several years.

According to Hanlon's Web site, he has "lived the American Dream, and his achievements prove that dream is alive and well." After suffering with dyslexia as a child, Hanlon went to work at age 22 and bought the company, Folio Exhibits, five years later.

"I knew that if I worked hard and said, "Yes sir' and "Yes ma'am' and apologized when I was wrong, something good would happen," Hanlon said in a phone interview last week.

"I've always said to the kids, "I will measure my success not by the money I have, but by the people I will touch in my life," he said.

"I hope it will be useful for them," said Dixie Hollins High School principal Jeffrey Haynes. "They say you save the world one kid at a time. If it helps the students, I'm for it."

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