Speak Out 5/1/09

Cameras, please

I wish there was a video camera scanning my neighborhood. Then there'd be no drug deals, no flophouse and no neighbors who make sure people from blocks away can hear their fussing.

Employee safety

THOSE who say OSHA is Big Brother might think they can fool the people into agreeing because they think the people don't know what the acronym OSHA stands for. OSHA stands for Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Those who hate it are likely little concerned with the health and safety of their employees.

Break in the link

TEACHERS are underpaid. I realize that at the junior high and high school level most teachers have more than 100 students. But having said that, Jackson's ParentLink is a joke. Some of my children's grades haven't been updated since the end of March. Earlier in the year three teachers went five weeks with no updates, so I e-mailed them. Two teachers never responded. One did, on a Thursday, but did not give me my child's grade. The teacher assured me that ParentLink would be updated by Monday. It was 12 days before the grades were updated. Homework in all classes has never been posted. Are there no checks at the administration level to ensure that ParentLink is being kept reasonably current? Why spend the money on a tool for parents if the teachers either do not have the time, cannot or will not keep up with it?

Thanks for the fun

REGARDING Messy Kids Day at the Show Me Center: Thank you so much to everyone who setup, volunteered and participated in Messy Kids Day. My son and niece had a blast. It was tons of fun with creative games. Thank you.

America's paranoia

IN what was otherwise a rather lame defense of Gene Scalp's sophomoric screed about the U.S. Constitution, a Speak Out caller got my attention with the 1984ish view that "those who disagree with any objective of the (Obama) administration are suspect and (will) be watched." This kind of statement at least reassures those on the lunatic right that the paranoid tradition is alive and well in America.