What risk was Dr. Rohmer taking in letting Mr. Fairbain be the master of ceremonies in The View From Saturday?

Mr. Homer
Fairbain is the deputy superintendant in charge of instruction in the school district, but for a
man with such a lofty position, he is not very learned. Mr. Fairbain had been the master of
ceremonies for the district playoffs of the Academic Bowl the previous year, and had made quite
a mess of things, showing his ignorance by his inability to read the questions correctly, and
embarrassing the school district in the process. This year, since the competing team is from the
sixth grade instead of the eighth grade as expected, it is anticipated that the audience for the
event will be larger than usual. By letting Mr. Fairbain be the master of ceremonies again, Dr.
Rohmer is taking a chance that the district will again be embarrassed by Mr. Fairbain's gaffes
in front of even more observers than last year.

Dr. Rohmer actually has
little choice but to let Mr. Fairbain do the job again, however, because it is "his one
chance to show the community that he (has) learned a thing or two." Mr. Fairbain is a
good-hearted, humble man, albeit inept, and he offers to consult some of the remedial reading
teachers on staff to help him read the questions correctly, but Dr. Rohmer reminds him that that
might not be appropriate, as he is technically their boss. In an attempt to avoid disaster, Dr.
Rohmer gives Mr. Fairbain a copy of the questions ahead of time, so he can practice and prepare
to read them without error. On the day of the event, Mr. Fairbain does quite well at first, but
then he mispronounces the name "Geronimo," and is corrected by Julian Singh. Mr.
Fairbain, good-natured as usual, admits his mistake, but then makes things worse by asking
Julian if he is an Indian himself; when Julian gives the qualified answer that he is "in
part what is called East Indian," Mr. Fairbain breaks an unspoken rule about not commenting
about a person's ethnicity in public by asking, "What is your tribe?" Mr. Fairbain
clearly does not understand the difference between East Indian and American Indian ethnicity,
and Dr. Rohmer is mortified. Mr. Fairbain, seeing Dr. Rohmer's look, mercifully ceases his
blundering repartee, and continues on with the contest (Chapter 7).