The Real Story behind Justin Bieber, a school, and that $100,000 check

Last week, Justin Bieber made headlines everywhere for donating $100,000 to a high-poverty school in Las Vegas. But the real story is not Justin’s benevolence (although it’s noteworthy), the real story is the woman behind the school — and how that check might not have found it’s way into the school’s coffers were it not for her.

In a segment of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, scheduled to air on Jan. 4, 2012, Bieber is shown handing a $100,000 check to Whitney Elementary School Principal Sherrie Gahn. In addition to donating the money, Bieber also performed for the kids and handed out Christmas presents.

Reporter Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post notes that 85% of the students attending Whitney Elementary live at or below the poverty level. “Many live in houses without heat, electricity and running water,” she writes. But the students’ standardized test scores have gone up significantly since Sherrie Gahn has been the principal there.

She arrived at Whitney about eight years ago and promised Whitney parents that she would help them with their bills — and even help pay college tuition for any students who went — if they would work with her to raise children “of character.”

Here’s what she told Ellen DeGeneres that she told parents: “I’ll pay your electrical bill, your utilities, I’ll give you food or clothes, whatever you need, as long as you give me your child and then help raise that child as a person of character.”

Strauss writes that the real story behind Bieber and that $100,000 check, which was matched by Target, is the principal who sacrifices her time, sweat and tears to improve the lives of impoverished schoolchildren.

“Whenever one of the super rich hands over $100,000 to a public school principal without telling her how to use it, it is an occasion to applaud,” Strauss writes.

But the real story is how Gahn has raised money, created partnerships with various organizations and done everything possible to help her students and their families with basic necessities and more. Why? Because as an educator she knew her students couldn’t succeed without this help.

“How do I tell the 251st child there isn’t enough food for her?” Gahn was quoted as saying. “It’s an impossible kind of triage.”