Students deserved to have a choice

As a retired educator from the Fox Chapel School District, I am saddened by the "theft" by the district's administrative team responsible for making a most unfortunate decision prohibiting students from experiencing an educational event that could have had far-reaching effects on any number of students.

Those students had a constitutional right to view what was intended to be a welcoming gesture by the president of the United States. The movement was nothing less than a "Hitler" tactic, violating the most precious of democratic principles for which we stand! And furthermore, administrative leadership's use of the educational process that the occasion could have utilized was a further example of an inept understanding of the learning process by those involved in making this decision. One of the many appropriate strategies, or methods intermediaries, could have taken a real life experience and turned it into an opportunity for a writing-response activity, a process by which the district has attained recognition.

The least restrictive option, and most democratic, would have been to provide the viewing in an auditorium, or the likes of it, for those students who would have chosen to be involved. Not being given the "choice" contributes to the demise of a democracy. Let's stop playing political games at the expense of our young people.

 

MARCELLA FILIAGGI
Jones Mills, Westmoreland County