Spirit T-shirts tacky, show wrong values

To the editor:

Here are excerpts from a letter I sent to Cape Girardeau School District superintendent Mark Bowles regarding the T-shirts that were displayed for the Cape Girardeau-Jackson football game:

I am a 1979 graduate of Central High School and have always been proud to say that. Yesterday that changed. When I read the newspaper and saw that the administration allowed such a tacky slogan about Jackson to be put on T-shirts to be sold and worn by students, I was so disappointed. I believe in school spirit and participated in school spirit as a student, but we kept it clean and in good taste. I feel the slogan, "Jackson ... where the family trees don't branch," was tacky and insulting to Jackson and shows that Central students and faculty will stoop to very low standards.

I was always taught that if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. Society is having enough trouble raising children to be respectable citizens today. When behavior such as this is condoned by the faculty and administration of the school system, I don't know how you expect parents to teach their children respect for the feelings of others. I think the Cape Girardeau School District owes Jackson a public apology. If this is the way that our teachers and administrators are teaching our children to act in today's society, I would not want my children or the children in my family to attend Cape Girardeau schools.

LORI CLIPPARD

Cape Girardeau