Letters to the Editors

Don't spare the punishment when teens go wrong

Re: Pupil drops sleeping pill into teacher's soda, story, Sept. 19, and Pupil's act went beyond prank to a serious crime, editorial, Sept. 20.

You bet we have comments about the teenage boy who put a sleeping pill in the teacher's Coke!

First, the child appears to lack parental discipline and guidance. Is there a father in the picture? Boys need male role models.

Second, any teenager of ours who did that would be severely punished. No penalty is too harsh for the boy.

When did teenagers begin to rule the world? Recently, a teenager already in trouble with the law got a pro bono lawyer and challenged our wonderful teen curfew. Did he succeed? Yes, and the rest of society in this area must suffer because of it. I say punish them good so they will remember and do not leave it up to the parents. Today's parents are to blame for their teenagers' behavior.
-- Peggy Gifford, Largo

Bring back respect and fear

Re: Pupil drops sleeping pill into teacher's soda, story, Sept. 19, and Pupil's act went beyond prank to a serious crime, editorial, Sept. 20.

What the teenager did was dangerous and despicable. He should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

As for the victim, since he is shrugging off the incident, I feel he is giving the green light to students to engage in dangerous and illegal acts.

Parents need to get tough with their tots, and teachers need to have the authority to use good old-fashioned discipline. And respect and fear need to be brought back to society. It's like the old saying, "You just wait until your father gets home."' Does anybody say that any more?
-- Mickey Weber, East Lake

Something needs to be done with teens

Re: Pupil drops sleeping pill into teacher's soda, story, Sept. 19, and Pupil's act went beyond prank to a serious crime, editorial, Sept. 20.

I am student teaching right now and will be certified to teach in the state of South Carolina in December.

This sort of thing scares me. I hope it does not become a trend. Teachers do not need to be abused by students any more than students need to feel abused by teachers. I understand that students get frustrated, and with more students getting frustrated and doing things like this and reacting in other violent ways, perhaps this needs to be addressed in all schools by programs that allow them to express their feelings in a safe, open forum.

Something needs to be done. There are too many students out there acting out their frustrations for us to ignore it any longer.
-- Shauna Farris, Ladson, S.C.

Teachers could use some discipline, too

Re: Pupil drops sleeping pill into teacher's soda, story, Sept. 19, and Pupil's act went beyond prank to a serious crime, editorial, Sept. 20.

The whole situation could (and should) have been avoided by simply putting into effect a no food, no drinks rule in classrooms. The teachers should be mature enough to go 50 or so minutes without a drink (particularly sodas) and the students should be given a role model to look up to.

Teachers and administrators spend so much time bellyaching about their lot in life they can't see the forest for the trees. One word solves most of the problems in today's schools: discipline. The students have none and the teachers and administrators show very little.
-- J. Sanders, Clearwater

City undermined arts foundation

As a former member of the Oldsmar Cultural Arts Foundation Inc.'s executive board and chairperson of the foundation's building committee, I know the reasons behind the termination of OCAF's contract to provide arts programing for the city of Oldsmar. Though it is true that we were unable to raise sufficient funds to construct a new art center, the foundation is not to blame.

OCAF had no delusions about its ability to get donations or state or federal grants without providing evidence of a foundation-city partnership. At an October 2001 meeting between the city and foundation, OCAF asked the City Council to commit to the minimum criteria of the Florida Department of State for awarding state facilities grants: a lease on the Civic Club property on St. Petersburg Drive to serve as the construction site for the new art center, and a monetary commitment to the project that would assist the foundation in winning a $500,000 state grant that requires a 2-for-1 match.

Foundation board members left this meeting confident they had the support of the majority of City Council members and city staff for this first step in fundraising. However, Mayor Jerry Beverland did not speak during the discussion and left the meeting early to attend another engagement.

What transpired was a City Council resolution that set aside the St. Petersburg Drive property for an art center but not to the exclusion of anything else. Former mayor and foundation executive director Jeff Sandler said the foundation also would like the city to commit funding to the proposed art center. In a Times article, Mayor Beverland said he had no immediate plans to enter a funding arrangement with the foundation. "That's why we set that foundation up, to raise funds," he said.

In the months that followed, the mayor lobbied hard for putting a new library on the St. Petersburg Drive site even though the city manager, community development director, Friends of the Oldsmar Library, and a poll of library patrons recommended the library be built on the SouthTrust Bank property on State Street.

While the foundation repeatedly identified the two critical actions necessary by the city to begin soliciting large donations and state grants, Mayor Beverland along with council members Don Bohr and Marcello Caruso went against the wishes of the community to ensure the foundation could not demonstrate a designated site or willingness on the part of the city to match funds.

Would you give money to an organization to build an art center if its leaders could not tell you where, when or how that center might be built? Surprisingly, many citizens and local small businesses did because they believed that if the community supported the idea of a new art center on St. Petersburg Drive, eventually Mayor Beverland would change his mind.

But Mayor Beverland never changed his mind. Not after a statewide competition among architectural colleges sponsored by the foundation brought hundreds of students and their architectural renderings and site plans to Oldsmar in January 2002.

Not after the foundation raised $8,000 to purchase a new grand piano for the center and accumulated another $35,000 in its endowment and building funds. Not after Wal-Mart donated T-shirts to the foundation to raise money. Not after Coloroc Materials Inc. donated bricks for a brick-engraving program. Not after Mardi Gras 2002 raised $6,000 for the building fund.

Instead, the mayor questioned the foundation's finances and operations, saying the group spent too much time operating programs and too little time fundraising. On this matter the mayor and I agree. But without the cooperation of the city on the land or matching funds, OCAF was between a rock and a hard place.

Since OCAF began running the city's arts programing in January 2001, it doubled the events and classes offered by the city and it did it with half of the budget the city allocated to arts programing the previous year. How did they do it? Innovative programs like Elvis Night, a groundswell of grass roots support, and thousands of hours of volunteerism.

Until May 2002, the foundation continued to be an excellent value for the city at a cost of $6,000 a month, but the all-volunteer board and membership were tired of the mayor's antifoundation rhetoric. They decided to send a message to Mayor Beverland: If you can do it better, then do it yourself.

It is now up to the city of Oldsmar to provide the residents with quality programing and a much needed arts center. Mayor Beverland and council members Bohr and Caruso have made it clear from their actions they don't want my help. Never mind. I'll spend my volunteer hours doing good somewhere else. I accomplished what I set out to do: make the arts a priority in Oldsmar.
-- Jan Sapiega, Oldsmar

Safety first in pizza delivery

Re: Delivered: Opinions on pizza delivery, editorial, Sept. 1.

Although I don't live in Tarpon Springs, I have delivered and ordered pizza at home. A person delivering pizza to a home usually is not being compensated to any great degree. Therefore, I believe he should not be required to jeopardize his well being.

If I am not mistaken, an employer is to provide a reasonably safe work environment. Wasn't it just a few years ago that employers who required their establishment to remain open after midnight had to have two people on duty or build a bulletproof cage around a lone clerk?

Regardless of what the possible danger might be, (people, alligators, crumbling structures or rabid dogs) in all good conscience employers should not be politically pressured to put delivery personnel in harm's way. After all, if it was a matter of pizza, one could go to the store and pick it up, if they could do so safely.
-- Robert Guerin, Largo

Your voice counts

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