It is difficult to understand what compelled Allentown school board member Elizabeth Trent to write a public letter (“Education is about character, not grades,” Sept. 20) preaching about being “people of good character” and “kind to our neighbors” and then unfairly passing judgment on both children and parents in the same letter. Ms. Trent wrote of several incidents that made her “not so proud to live in this community.” In describing the first incident, Ms. Trent classified a group of young girls as “mean girls” because of an online incident. And another situation Ms. Trent felt compelled to write about was “a group of parents who complained about changing the location of a bus stop, which would make it safer for a child with special needs.”
We are those parents, Ms. Trent, and you are greatly misinformed. Perhaps you should attempt to get both sides of a story before publicly condemning people and making such a biased, judgmental statement without collecting all the facts.
We were never notified of a change in the bus stop location other than a parent of the special needs child yelling down the street to our children, “Hey, guys, the bus stop has been moved over here now.” There was obviously confusion as our children held bus passes indicating they should go to the same bus stop they had for six years. None of us had a single complaint about changing the bus stop if it was best for a special needs child and we openly expressed this. Our complaint was with the lack of communication from the district, not with the change in the bus stop. As a matter of fact, the district has still failed to formally notify us of a change in the bus stop.
We felt this situation had been resolved when we received a letter from the child’s parents apologizing for the lack of communication. Why then, Ms Trent, did you feel compelled to unfairly criticize an issue that had been amicably resolved? Perhaps the real lesson to be learned here is not about character, but about someone unfairly passing judgment and condemning others in a public forum.
We are very proud to live, worship and volunteer in this community and we consider ourselves women of very strong character. In closing Ms. Trent, we would appreciate a retraction to your comments and an apology in this regard.
Kathy Tice,
Kathi DiGiuseppe,
Allentown
