LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Teacher needed help with student
9/25/2013Although I agree that teacher Robert Donaldson’s comment to an insolent student was inappropriate, Toledo Public Schools should bear responsibility for preparing teachers to handle these types of issues (“Teacher, aide suspended for remarks; Incidents occurred last TPS school year,” Sept. 14).
Teachers should not have to be police officers in their classes. There should be a better process for a teacher to call for immediate help. A disruptive student should be taken to a private office for discipline by an expert.
Teachers cannot maintain a class and teach or form a bond with students when they have to deal with disruptive behavior.
TPS must think out of the box to come up with a solution, because what school officials are doing is not working. Disruptive children need help in learning good social skills.
PAT NYLER
South Beverly Hills Drive
Balloons can hurt the environment
People who release balloons have no idea what they are doing to our environment (“Area tributes mark 9/11’s painful losses,” Sept. 12).
Balloons get caught in trees and in bushes, and land in lakes and rivers. They are litter.
Birds and wildlife sometimes ingest balloons and choke on them. Sometimes they get tangled in balloon strings and ribbons.
It’s time people do some research before they release any more balloons.
PAT HALEY
Oak Harbor
B.G store staff came to rescue
My grandmother, Faith Lilly Jackson, died Sept. 8. On Sept. 12, the day of her funeral, I realized at the last minute that I had forgotten to purchase stands to display portraits of her at her service at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Bowling Green.
I arrived at the Ben Franklin store in Bowling Green before 8:45 a.m. and knocked, desperate. Opening time was 9 a.m., but they let me in. I grabbed seven stands and headed to checkout when I was horrified to find assembly was required.
It was impossible for me to assemble the stands in the best circumstances. Seeing that I was distraught, a Ben Franklin employee called four other workers and they began assembling the stands.
I did not request that they help, but they did. I will never forget that when I was in need, complete strangers at Ben Franklin saved my grandmother’s last day in Bowling Green.
JENNIFER MAY
Bowling Green
What makes a ‘true’ American?
The people who want to define who is an American ought to research their ancestry and see which foreign country their family came from.
The Navajo, Cherokee, Seminole, Apache, and other Native American tribes were here when the first white settlers came.
My family came here from Germany in the late 1800s. My husband’s family has Irish, English, and other roots.
People should think hard before they define who is a true American.
SHARON TIPPING
Ottawa Lake, Mich.