LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: VOTER BACKLASH HURTS STUDENTS NOT SCHOOL BOARD

To the editor:

I moved to the Jackson School District in second grade. I remember being scared to death of the change, but I soon learned to love Jackson and was proud of what I considered to be my new hometown.

In 1992, my husband (a native of Jackson) and I were forced to move to St. Louis because of a job transfer. This was one year after we had our first child. From then on our main goal was to move back to the Jackson School District so our child could attend a school district that was so greatly cared about by the community. One year later we achieved that goal.

Now my child is attending the fourth grade at the West Lane building, and my second child will be starting kindergarten next year.

By now you have figured out how greatly disappointed I am by our hometown. Instead of the loving, caring atmosphere, it is now a town filled with bickering and arguing, more concerned with paybacks than the welfare of our children.

For the first time, I am considering other alternatives to the public school. I do not want to take a chance on my little girl burning up in the junior high school because she can't even walk down the hall under normal circumstances, much less an emergency-type situation. How can anyone with any conscience at all let this situation continue? You are not paying back the school board. You are hurting your children and your grandchildren's future. What a sorry group of people.

We need to keep our education standards up. These children are our next school board, mayors and reflection of us whether they are from here originally or just moved in. The future president of the United States may have just moved to Jackson. We should be proud that people want to move to Jackson, not try to force them out.

DEBBIE GREEN

Jackson, Mo.