Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 15, 1995 TAG: 9503160002
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Roanoke County has a policy against distributing condoms to students at all schools. Fair enough. The county also has a policy against organizing prayer in schools. Yet students should not be denied the ability to come together and pray if they so desire. It may just have a positive effect. And no students should be punished for having condoms in their possession or giving them to other students.
If Cave Spring High School's sexually active students aren't using condoms, they'll need more than prayer to deal with the consequences.
R. BENNETT ELLIS
ROANOKE
Fund programs that sustain our souls
TO ELIMINATE funding for the arts and humanities, as well as for public radio and public television, is to ignore what they do to us and for us. They're civilizing, humanizing influences that are a necessary part of the richness and spiritual fulfillment of our lives.
Without them, so much beauty, enjoyment, enlightenment, educational benefits and aesthetic ennoblement would be eliminated from our lives, robbing us of the intense joy of lack of mediocrity. To me and to millions of others, beautiful music, good theater, exceptional art, great and interesting ideas, etc., nurture and sustain our souls and spirits.
I understand that the taxpayers' cost to continue this funding is literally minuscule, and it seems to me that by cutting a mere fraction of the government's often-unconscionable waste in certain areas, these solid values and aesthetic riches could continue without missing a beat.
KITTY COXE KOOMEN
ROANOKE
Roanoke's hard line on Big Boy
JUST ANOTHER instance of the powers that be in Roanoke wielding their thought-control club to quash the entrepreneurial spirit. So what if Big Boy has an earring and a tattoo?
Spanky Macher's restaurant will aid downtown's revitalization process, a fact city leaders have chosen to overlook. A common saying in the business world states that ``word of mouth is the best advertising.'' Is it any wonder that Roanoke has such a difficult time attracting new businesses to the area?
As for the building ordinance, it seems to me that selective enforcement occurs in several places throughout Roanoke. Maybe if Macher helped to fuel an inordinate share of the city's coffers, he could get on the selective-enforcement list, too.
DAVID M. STANLEY
ROANOKE
Norfolk Southern wins two big ones
ON BEHALF of Norfolk Southern, let me express appreciation for your March 4 article ``High court favors NS; $500,000 verdict out.''
Also, please permit me to point out that another decision favorable to NS was reached Feb. 23 in a case tried before Judge James C. Turk in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia. In that suit, a carman sought $750,000 for a back injury allegedly sustained in East End Shops in 1989.
An Edwardsville, Ill., lawyer represented the carman, while James F. Johnson and David B. Carson of the Johnson, Ayers and Matthews law firm of Roanoke represented NS. The trial lasted three days, and the seven-person jury deliberated less than two hours before returning a verdict for NS.
BOB AUMAN
Manager, Public Relations
Norfolk Southern
ROANOKE
Disruptive students should be excluded
LIKE MANY of your editorials, ``Mainstreaming in Montgomery'' (March 7) is based on an unstated assumption that is unacceptable to a large segment of your readers. In this case, the unstated assumption concerns the desire of placing handicapped children in regular classrooms, even if they're seriously disruptive or gain no meaningful benefit from this placement, as is often the case in Montgomery County. You concede that not all handicapped children's parents think they should be in regular classrooms, but never mention the concerns of the vast majority of parents. You speak of Montgomery County's ``recognized work in integrating physically- and mentally-disabled youngsters into regular classrooms'' as if that's altogether desirable.
In my opinion and that of many other parents of students in Montgomery County schools, disruptive students, handicapped or not, shouldn't be tolerated in regular classrooms. It seems unavoidable that disruptive students degrade other children's education, to say nothing of the toll on their unfortunate teachers. In the case of the Hartmann child, you failed to mention that Loudoun County's decision to place him in a special-education classroom wasn't due to his handicap but because they considered him disruptive.
Frankly, I don't welcome the Hartmanns' opportunistic move to our county or the ``inclusion'' of one more disruptive child in regular classrooms. I can assure you that our county's policy of carrying ``inclusion'' to an extreme didn't arise from considering the wishes of the majority of parents. Maybe this process has gone as far as it has because it isn't considered ``nice'' or politically correct to complain about anything involving the handicapped. I believe the time for complaints is now, before Roxana Hartmann starts working on ``inclusion'' of her son at Virginia Tech or Radford.
ROBERT B. FRARY
BLACKSBURG
Insensitivity toward the unborn
I READ J. Carl Poindexter's March 3 commentary ``Only women should decide abortion law,'' and I can't agree with any points he made. However, I won't argue with what he says, for I believe it would be futile to try to dissuade him from his insensitivity toward the unborn.
I feel the best thing I can do for this man and those who think like him is to pray for them, to ask that they will someday come to know God and have a personal relationship with him. When this happens, I believe without a doubt, that they'll love and cherish the unborn from the moment of conception, to their birth, and then onward through life.
ROBERT S. McCORMICK JR.
LEXINGTON
Carving school days from 4x4 blocks
A 4x4 block schedule in the fall of 1995? For those who don't know what this is, let me explain.
Currently, a Montgomery County high-school student has seven 45-minute classes a day. In the 4x4 block schedule, there'll be four 11/2 hour classes. At the end of a semester, a student will receive four credits. To my knowledge, this is the only question concerning 4x4 that can definitely be answered.
School administrators from Christiansburg and Shawsville high schools and the central office have requested that the county School Board approve 4x4 for the fall of 1995.
Before committing to the 4x4, these questions should be answered:
Has a curriculum been developed? Have teachers developed a class instructional plan? Have teachers developed a comprehensive needs inventory? What will be the attendance policy? Why is 4x4 not divisionwide?
Have teachers and substitutes received any training? How much training is needed? What instructional materials, supplies and equipment are needed to keep the student interested for a 11/2 hour-class period?
Why is it important that 4x4 be implemented in the fall of 1995? How will a 4x4 graduation curriculum be integrated into 4x4 block scheduling? How will the international baccalaureate degree program be integrated into the 4x4 block scheduling?
This is the most important decision our School Board will make in at least 10 years, and it will impact students for years to come.
CHARLES NELSON
CHRISTIANSBURG
by CNB