The following is posted on the APS website.
Subject : Statement on Gil Lovato Lawsuit
Author : Dr. Elizabeth Everitt
Posted Date : 2007/07/03
As expected, Gil Lovato has filed suit today. We question the merits of this suit and its allegations. If there is any truth to these allegations why they were not brought up prior to Mr. Lovato's contract with the district ending last week?
Finally, I must emphasize that the district will not settle. We will not continue to be bullied by Mr. Lovato and his attorney.
Sincerely,
Dr. Elizabeth Everitt, Superintendent
Albuquerque Public Schools
A Red Herring is a fallacy in which an irrelevant topic is presented in order to divert attention from the original issue. The basic idea is to "win" an argument by leading attention away from the argument and to another topic. This sort of "reasoning" has the following form:
1. Topic A is under discussion (the truthfulness of Lovato's allegations).
2. Topic B is introduced (the filing date) under the guise of being relevant to topic A (when topic B is actually not relevant to topic A).
3. Topic A is abandoned.
This sort of "reasoning" is fallacious because merely changing the topic of discussion hardly counts as an argument against a claim.
Everitt's statement is a case on point. Everitt has offered no argument against the truthfulness of Lovato's claims.
Likely, because she has none.
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