Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 1, 1994 TAG: 9405020134
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
First, on the schools' need for a nurse: no one at the meeting was against hiring a school nurse. Quite the contrary. The Radford Education Association as well as the School Board have addressed the importance of adding a nurse on numerous occasions. The REA's position is that a school nurse should be hired without cutting the teachers' 3 percent salary increase. Statements by School Board member Chip Craig suggested that this was inviting a "health care fiasco." This is simply not the case. Our schools have functioned without a school nurse for years because the very medical emergencies of which Mr. Craig is fearful always have been addressed using the excellent emergency medical services available in Radford.
Further the characterization of a school nurse as one who primarily treats medical emergencies is simply not correct. A school nurse typically conducts health screenings, monitors students taking medication, conducts classes for students and staff and does medically related administrative tasks assigned by the board.
As certain members of the School Board pointed out, the school system has not yet determined the nurse's exact job description. An additional year, budget cuts notwithstanding, could give the school system some time to decide more specifically how a nurse might best be used.
Second, Mr. Craig criticized the REA for not being present when the school budget was presented to City Council. In fact, REA representatives did attend the council hearing. REA members should know that Mr. Craig's suggestion the REA sat out the budget process is incorrect.
Third, and perhaps most troublesome, was Mr. Craig's statement that he had never heard REA mention the word "child" in any of its comments to the School Board. I wish to express my disappointment that such a comment was actually said at a School Board meeting.
A physician's organization may address concerns of the medical profession without mentioning the word "heal." A lawyer's organization may address issues of concern without mentioning the word "justice." Nevertheless, few would accuse these professionals, by implication, of caring nothing for either goal.
Teachers live for the educational growth of children. They often have forsaken more lucrative professions that their years in college and graduate school might gain for them to do just that. Much of what is said in a public forum these days is full of gratuitous rhetoric. The REA has attempted always to respect the intelligence of the members of our School Board by trying not to waste time stating the obvious. Of course we care for children. Children are our lives.
The REA and the School Board always have dealt with each other with respect, mature behavior, a strong allegiance to the truth and a common understanding that we all were there, first and foremost, for the children of our community. I and all of my colleagues are grateful that the majority of the members on our School Board still believe in this important working relationship.
Betty Whitley,
President-elect,
Radford Education Association
Radford
Scaring people unnecessarily
Although I am an ex-smoker, I still think that as long as tobacco is legally produced and sold, it's nobody's business if or where adults use it. The June 1 ban on smoking in the New River Mall is another example of how the government and the media have scared a lot of people unnecessarily.
Since I've been on "both sides of the fence," I think I can speak with more authority than someone who has never smoked and thinks they know what's best for everyone.
With all the real problems we have in this country, high crime rates, unemployment, kids on dope carrying guns, etc. you would think that people would find something else to worry and lose sleep over than the chance of getting a whiff of second-hand smoke. I've been to the local malls as both a smoker and a nonsmoker and have never found a problem with smokers.
I quit many years ago, but I did so for my own reasons, and not because the government or some "goody-goody" told me to. Ease up already!
Raymond Collinsworth
Pembroke
Poor opinion of public schools
Hmm ... students composing an opera, children spending six weeks to understand the Holocaust, pupils expressing concern for the environment and demonstrating activism involving the same, all synonyms with worthless? Mr. MacAdoo, whose letter to the editor ran April 24) needs to rethink his opinion of public education.
Carol Jortner,
teacher, Montgomery County Schools
Blacksburg
by CNB