TPS cuts, accident not linked

9/10/2010

You quoted the assistant superintendent of Toledo Public Schools, Romules Durant, as saying that a DeVeaux Middle School student who was struck recently was a bus rider during the previous school year but because of budget cutbacks is unable to ride a bus this year (“Student hit by car while bicycling to school,” Sept. 8).

The student attended my school, Eagle Academy, during the 2009-2010 school year, not a Toledo public school. Mr. Durant is incorrect that the student rode a bus at Eagle Academy. We began offering transportation for the first time to our students this school year.

If the student were still enrolled here, he would have benefited from that transportation, and this accident could have been avoided.

Toledo Public Schools, please do not use what happened to this student as a way to drum up public sympathy for your budget woes.

Shannon M. Kane

Instructional Coach

Eagle Academy

Consaul Street

Burger-flippers not sum of TPS

Although I agree that Toledo Public Schools need improvement, I disagree with the Sept. 7 Readers' Forum letter “Toledo city schools are shameful.” That writer's assessment is that all students TPS turns out are burger-flippers.

Many variables affect some children's ability to learn. If a child has the desire to learn, he will, whatever the curriculum or circumstances.

TPS has turned out many good students who went on to earn a variety of degrees. It has turned out many vocational students as well.

Debbie King

Kelsey Avenue

TPS students get millions in awards

As the parent of two, and soon to be three, recent graduates of Toledo Public Schools, I was disappointed in the letter disparaging TPS students and faculty.

Toledo schools are facing challenges, to be sure. But continued efforts to highlight negative news or opinions about TPS, while ignoring the many positive accomplishments of TPS and its students, damage the schools and the entire community.

The letter writer stated that recent TPS graduates are prepared only for minimum-wage jobs as burger-flipppers.

Recent TPS graduates have been accepted into many prestigious universities, have received millions of dollars in academic scholarships, and have received an education that was enhanced, not harmed, by attending schools with a diverse group of students.

Ignored were the 16 TPS schools rated as excellent or effective in the recently released school report cards. Equally shamefully, the letter puts down an entire group of students, many of whom are hard-working, successful individuals who would make any parent proud.

Tom Lemon

Beechway Boulevard

Why the new schools, lights?

If Toledo Public Schools is so broke, why is the district building new schools? How can it spend money when there is supposedly no money?

Also, the City of Toledo is supposedly broke and in debt, but still unnecessary spending is going on. What's with all the new traffic lights? Red, yellow, and green are still the same colors.

I'm glad city officials are not managing my money.

D. Czajka

Daleford Drive

Word about gun permits spreading

You state in your Sept. 4 editorial “Mail-order gun permits” that about 2,000 Ohioans hold a Utah concealed-carry permit because of its lesser requirements and fees.

You expect that the number of applications from Ohio will go up as people get the word. Well, thank you for spreading the word to Ohioans who probably wouldn't be eligible for an Ohio permit. They can now apply to Utah.

My wife and I have an Ohio concealed-carry permit. We obtained it by taking the required training and paying the necessary fees to Ohio.

Now I know that instead of applying to Ohio for my renewal, which will require that my wife and I attend a training class again, I can apply to Utah and save some money, especially because I am on a fixed income.

The felons and other lowlifes probably will still not apply for a permit, regardless of which state issues it. But at least you have let them know where it will be easier.

Alfred Campolongo

Northwood

More checking reveals more facts

With a few simple queries, a little reading, and some comprehension, your editorial about Utah gun permits could have been accurate.

You imply that all that is needed to get a concealed handgun license from Utah is a stamp. If you had checked the Utah Department of Public Safety's application for a concealed firearm permit, you would know that Utah requires a minimum of four hours of certified instruction, an FBI background check, and fingerprints.

Mike Weigandt

Oak Grove Place

Answers to madness scarce

A decade ago, I was at the University of Florida in Gainesville. My children still have friends, more Christians and Jews than Muslims, in Gainesville.

When the tragedy of 9/11 occurred, my 7-year-old daughter was at school. Watching the horrific destruction of 9/11 on television, she was traumatized.

That evening when I called from work, the first thing she asked me was: Are Muslims supposed to be like this? How can they kill thousands of innocent people for nothing? I had no answer for her, because I didn't have any for myself.

The day after the attack, emotions were running high. I asked my elder daughter not to wear her hijab to school. She wore a baseball cap instead. Her teacher asked: “Why Ayesha, why? Why did you take off your head scarf? We know you. You don't have to be scared. You are protected here.”

The same morning, when my wife went to work, she found an American coworker, whose son was stationed in Iraq, donning a head scarf as a sign of support. She went to my wife's desk and without saying a word, she hugged her.

That's the America I know. Those are the Americans I came to love and respect.

It is beyond belief that a tiny church in a prestigious university town would stir such a controversy and rile up not only Muslims, but also every peace-loving Christian and Jew in the world (“Pastor may go ahead, burn copies of Qur'an,” Sept. 10).

On the ninth anniversary of 9/11, I beseech my Christian friends: Do you have an answer for the Rev. Terry Jones' madness?

Abdul-Majeed Azad

Perrysburg

Media pumped up Fla. pastor

The pastor of the small Florida congregation will never be as unwise and self-serving as the national press that has given him air time and print space to spew his profound stupidity.

Dan Schaefer

Maumee

Articles about history are better

I learned more from your Sept. 9 article “Fort restores Perry's Memorial” about Perry's Monument on Put-In-Bay than I've learned from many trips to the top of that monument during the past 75 years.

We need more of these articles, rather than articles about shootings and fires in the inner city.

Charles Dersher

Sylvania