THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 14, 1996 TAG: 9607120175
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 67 lines
For some time you've watched over Virginia Beach Public Schools in many areas. Mostly bad news. It's just June 4 as I write this note.
Just hours before curtain call - when schools close the 1995/96 school year. A good year? A bad year?
Looking into the eyes of reality, a real truth, I can see and hear many faculty members showing a real sigh of relief. Was it a good year for teaching teens? Or was it just another year of an endurance test of the nerves?
Was it my imagination, or did the students (majority of them at most) just want to see how far they could go to get the teacher's goat?
It's a fact also our country's President Bill Clinton panics (holds a white flag seemingly) warning our people, urging strict curfews for teenagers (ordered Attorney General Janet Reno to send guidelines to our mayors).
What's wrong with us? As to declare war on teens of America. Why teach them wrongly?
Our country has been going down (public school wise) ever since the early '60s.
As a senior citizen it's even harder for me to accept. Why does it need to be? Why is it so?
A country as strong as America is, allowing it to go on. Because in the very eyes of intelligence, it shows how ignorant we as a people really are when it comes to ``our'' children and their education. God's prayer line should be back in ``our'' public schools.
Oh, yes! I'm retiring. I've been in tears long enough, watching ignorance at work daily. And it's very expensive to the people. The taxpayer.
Is it school or a baby-sitting institution? The new 1996-97 school year will face a new challenge. Will it survive or bankrupt?
A new superintendent and an almost all new School Board are in place.
Will they step in in time, change some things and save the schools? Or will it be the same old grind - if so, God help us!
Jack B. Davidson
June 4
Crime and punishment
A judge in Pennsylvania has taken a giant step when it comes to juvenile crime. While the crime itself, cow burning, does not seem like much of an offense when we consider 6-year-olds beating infants, children throwing children out of windows and teenagers carrying guns and selling crack, maybe if sentencing guidelines took a harder line, our country could get a grip on juvenile crime.
We need to reverse the process by putting fear and respect back into retribution. Judge Richard N. Saxton, ruling from the bench in rural Clinton County, punished an offending 17-year-old with one month detention, 16 weeks of juvenile boot camp and 400 hours of community service working for the dairy farmer whose pregnant cow was set ablaze. The youth also was ordered to pay full restitution for the loss, obtain his GED, surrender his driver's license and sell his car, turning over the proceeds to the cow's owner.
While I think the cows in Clinton County are safe, we have a bigger task before us - juvenile offenders must get the message Judge Saxton decreed loud and clear . . . young criminals will no longer be allowed to thumb their noses at the law and laugh at what has become whitewashed laws with punishments that have somehow become turned around to protect the ``bad boys'' more than the public.
Crime is a bad thing and we have to start showing our kids that we love them enough to punish them until they learn right from wrong. How long will this process take? Ask Judge Saxton - maybe until the cows come home.
Christie L. Lee
May 20 by CNB