SPEAK OUT

Free to pray

TO THE person who said you could get expelled for bringing a Bible to school: Where do you get this stuff? Students are allowed to practice their religion in school. The law prohibiting prayer in schools only applies to teacher- or administrator-led prayer that would be offensive to those of differing faiths. Give me a break.

No cost for illness

THE FEDERAL government should drop its lawsuit against Big Tobacco because smokers die younger and supposedly save taxpayers money. Hey, don't get mad at me. I'm just deconstructing the social Darwinistic political philosophy of David Limbaugh.

They work together

A SPEAK Out caller wrongly assumed a distinction between academics and athletics. This is an example of a false dichotomy. In the broadest and best sense, school athletics and academics both provide wonderful learning opportunities and share a common goal in educating the whole child, as with the ancient Greeks. Praising a new school leader for supposedly emphasizing one over the other is bad, but having a school leader who seems to think the two may in some way be in conflict jeopardizes the ability of the students who attend the school to receive a top-notch education. That this scenario could be developing in Cape is catastrophic.

Campus undercover

I'M CURIOUS how much the Cape police officer has made the city in revenue on the SEMO campus. He drives a dark blue car with standard Missouri tags and has the ability to appear at random all over the SEMO campus. I've only seen him a few times when he didn't have someone pulled over. Cape: Enough is enough. Get this guy some city tags and a city car and stop discriminating against the college-age motorists of this town.

Get the big guys

TO HECK with having a minor league baseball team in Cape. I say it's whole hog or nothing. Senator Kinder, put together an incentive package for what will become the relocated with a new stadium Cape Girardeau Cardinals.

Doesn't make sense

I'M READING about the diversity in schools. The school teachers are concerned. I think this is a ridiculous idea. If people don't want a job in Cape or Jackson schools, why go out and try to get them to come to it? It mentions that when school officials go to these hiring places the minority candidates aren't there to hire. Many of these well-qualified people can get a job paying much more money because everybody is trying to recruit them. This is ridiculous.

Administrator coaches

AS SOMEONE who spent many years in education, I support the policy of full-time administrators not coaching. When an administrator is also a coach, the probability of there being conflicts of interest when it comes to determining administrative policy and handling disciplinary problems is greatly increased.

Get best teachers

I HAVE never been so insulted by an article that I read in the Southeast Missourian as I was when I read the article about teaching diversity in the Cape Girardeau School District. I was educated in Cape's public schools and consider myself a pretty average intelligent person. I don't care that they go out searching for minorities. I want them to search for the best teacher. My kids deserve the best teachers, not a staff that has diversity. Stop this garbage of trying to load up the staff with certain kinds of people.

Take care of school

I WANT to applaud Marty Mishow for his column on Scott City. I want to tell all the Scott City School Board members not to bother spending their money on re-election campaigns because it is time to get some members in there who will take care of our school and our teachers.