Publication Date: Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Letters
Letters
(January 26, 2005)
A Gunn point
Editor,
Many people at Gunn High School were disappointed and saddened by the article; "Racist e-mails, slow investigation frustrate teacher" that appeared in the Palo Alto Weekly on Jan. 12. The factual errors in it result in the Gunn community and the Palo Alto School District being unfairly portrayed as uncaring, unconcerned and unresponsive. It is my hope that you will publish this letter and set the record straight.
First, the District Technology staff was able to establish from its immediate and timely investigations that the original e-mail initiating the stream that Deborah Sanderson received was sent on June 16, well after school was out for the summer and not during school time as you allege. School finished on June 10.
This is important because there were no classes in session on June 16 that would have helped us narrow down the search for the perpetrator. An unknown person or persons entered the unoccupied science building on the edge of campus and initiated the e-mails.
Secondly, I contacted the District Office on June 24 as soon as I learned about the e-mails and the district started an investigation immediately. District personnel also contacted the Palo Alto Police Department that same day. There was no "two month delay" as you claim in this article.
District Tech people worked hard during the summer to try to find where the messages were coming from, to identify the perpetrator and to provide Ms. Sanderson with an alternative email address. Unfortunately, our collective efforts did not identify the sender.
When we returned to school in the fall, I asked our school resource officer to resume the investigation because the students were back and he mingles with and talks to many of them. I had hoped that he would pick up on some clues from the students but so far, this has not happened.
Gunn, like any other large institution, is a reflection of the society in which we live. We acknowledge that racism exists in society and that it exists on our campus and we will continue our efforts to fight it.
Our hearts go out to Ms. Sanderson for the hurt and pain that she is feeling right now. No one should ever have to suffer this indignity. There may be, as Ms. Sanderson claims, "an ugly side of Gunn" but we are working hard to erase it.
Noreen Likins
Principal, Gunn High School
Arastradero Road
Palo Alto
Shock and awe
Editor,
I appreciated the Weekly's piece in the "Around Town" section of the paper, ("Sticker Shock," Jan. 19) and anticipate it will spark some much-needed controversy regarding the limits of the First Amendment, artistic expression and what constitutes an outrage to the public decency in our community.
If my truck, and its owner, can be a lightning rod for a discussion of the First Amendment and the issues raised by the stickers on my "Free Speech Mobile," i.e., the Bush Administration's polices, No U.S. Aid to Israel, End or Amend the three strikes law etc., then it is finally starting to do its job as a moving soapbox and a device to snap folks out of what too often appears to be detached apathy on the issues.
Finally, I can't get the image out of my head of Mr. Joel Henner of Walter Hays Drive in Palo Alto walking around my truck attempting to count all of the "F--- Bush" stickers. Should he decide he wants to sport one on his own vehicle, I have set aside one especially for him.
Aram James
Los Robles Avenue
Palo Alto
A matter of judgment
Editor,
Thomas Daniell (ReaderWire, Jan. 21) missed the point of my letter. I did not intend to make a political statement. I would be equally offended if the bumper stickers had the word "Bush" replaced with the word "Kerry," or "Dolphins," or if the offending word simply stood alone.
My point is that the prominent display of this offensive word in the downtown setting at midday, when families with children are passing by, shows a lack of consideration for one's fellow citizens. We live in a society where certain norms of behavior and decency ought to be respected.
The problem with the bumper sticker this person chose to plaster his truck with and then display in full view of the public is not the noun, but the verb. By parking his truck on University Avenue at midday this individual may have thought he was making a political statement. In fact, the only statement made by this gesture was: "I am a citizen with poor judgment."
As for Dick Cheney's use of the "F" word on the Senate floor, well, all that proves is that poor judgment is not the sole possession of those who disagree with the current administration.
Joel Henner
Walter Hays Drive
Palo Alto
Alphabet soup lunches?
Editor,
As a member of Superintendent Callan's Food Service Advisory Committee (FSAC), I read with increasing disappointment the report about our work in Wednesday's (Jan. 21) edition. Complaints raised by the Healthy School Lunch Committee (HSLC) led the superintendent to form her own committee. However, these two committees are not the same, and had very different outlooks and goals.
The article muddles the difference and suggests that the two committees are identical. In fact, many of us on the FSAC disagreed with recommendations made by the members of the HSLC who sat on the FSAC.
Given that the FSAC's report makes it clear that there was disagreement within the committee about what should be done to alter the current school-lunch program, I am disappointed that the reporter did not make more of an effort to explain that diversity of opinions.
Gerta Endemann, as a member of the HSLC, is hardly a representative sample of the variety of teachers, administrators and parents who comprised the adult membership of the committee; yet, she was the only adult member quoted in the article.
The article suggests that the current offerings are unattractive and unhealthy. Having sampled the school lunches, and observed students eating those lunches, I consider that to be patently untrue. The students have many options available, many students voluntarily put vegetables (e.g. salads and carrot sticks) and fresh fruits on their trays, and I personally found several of the entrees to be both attractive and enjoyable.
It is true that the school lunches could be improved, but the current program deserves more credit.
Melissa R. Michelson
Redwood Circle
Palo Alto
No cause for complaint
Editor,
Elliott Bolter (ReaderWire, Jan. 21) asks, "Having relocated to Palo Alto 54 years ago, we were assured that infrastructure-services costs were covered by our property tax -- what's happened?"
For anyone even halfway awake, the answer is fairly obvious: Proposition 13. Having presumably benefited from below-market property assessments for the past 25 years, while his newer neighbors bear an increasingly disproportionate share of the tax burden for community services, Mr. Bolter hardly has cause to complain.
Deborah Sivas
College Avenue
Palo Alto
Unnecesary force
Editor,
I have long admired Palo Alto City Council member Hillary Freeman's courage in asking hard questions at council meetings and now respect her stance that something needs to be changed at the police department.
However, I disagree that the problem with the police department has anything to do with communication. The problem is with police actions over the years. Any real change would have to address the policies of the police chief and her guidance of the officers on the force. What the public does not need is more PR from the police chief.
The Hopkins beating is by far the worst of these police actions, to my mind. The attitude of the police chief is intolerable in this so-called liberal community. She stated publicly that the two officers, Kan and Lee, did nothing wrong and should not be held to answer for their actions. She then put them on paid administrative leave, where they remain today.
A police chief in synch with a truly liberal community would have fired those two officers immediately. There was no dispute over the essential facts of what had occurred, only whether the officers' actions were justified according to departmental procedures. Chief Johnson said they were.
The only meaningful solution to the police problems is to find a new police chief who is more in keeping with a community and a City Council that are reputed to be progressive on human rights.
Natalie Fisher
Ellsworth Place
Palo Alto
Bravo for Boxer
Editor,
Thank goodness for Barbara Boxer. Ethnic origin does not imply veracity and in the case of Condaleeza Rice, the complicity of the sure-to-be Secretary of State with the real "evil empire" of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the whole Wolfowitz gang, just shows what power "she" really isn't likely to wield.
Answering questions is not Rice's forte and never has been. Shoring up the crumbling wall of the United States in the eyes and hearts of the world dissolve when "the economy is great, the war was justified, the nations of the Middle East all desire democracy" phrases spout forth.
Diane Feinstein had better look at her electorate and reflect on why most of the state of California and the country did not vote for Bush, in spite of the electoral-college shenanigans. Four more years of deception in the name of international misconceptions mean a longer time for real peace and understanding to evolve.
And meanwhile, the deficit grows larger; education, health care, environmental concerns, and funds for the poor and aged go down the drain.
Keep up the good work, Barbara Boxer. We need you desperately.
Jan Lyman
Amaranta Court
Palo Alto
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