Bad Example for Students
I'm very disappointed in the Alexandria School Board's vote Nov. 16 to renew Superintendent Rebecca L. Perry's contract through June 2008.
I am the mother of five children, four of whom have passed through the Alexandria public schools. The fifth is a student at T.C. Williams High School. He is old enough to drive, but he has not gotten his learner's permit. I have never stopped my children from getting their licenses; however, I don't help them, either. If they want to drive, they must pay the fees for the license and the cost of driver's ed. And if they want to own a car, they must pay for that, too, along with the insurance, gas and repairs. With or without a car of their own, they go nowhere without my permission. They take no one with them, and they go with no one unless I approve it. There is always a chance that the rules will be broken, and so I believe that setting an example is the best way to make sure the rules remain unbroken more times than not.
Since my children were very small, we have talked many times about the effects of drinking and driving. My children know that I do not disapprove of an adult having a drink or two at a social gathering or in the evening in their home. They know that I absolutely disapprove of anyone drinking and getting behind the wheel of a car. They also know the consequences. They have been told that if they are ever picked up for DUI that I would bring them their toothbrush and the phone number of a lawyer. Period. They are all babysitters, mentors of schoolchildren and coaches on sports teams. I have pointed out that all those children are looking to them for an example. Then the superintendent gets picked up for DUI. This woman is not just any adult who made a mistake. She heads an organization that exists solely for the betterment and education of children. Many of these children are of driving age. One of the schools that she oversees actually parks a wrecked vehicle in front of the school every year at prom time to give the kids a visual of what could happen if they get behind the wheel after drinking. We also live in a metropolitan area that has lost many teens in car accidents. Some of these accidents have involved alcohol, and some have not. Well, how about we show these kids that if you are an adult and you take on a job in which you are getting paid, in part, to set an example, and you are asking the kids to do one thing but you do another, the boom gets lowered, big-time? I fail to understand why Perry's contract has been renewed. I didn't understand why she was not fired when this happened. Why would kids, with their "everything will work out" attitude, believe that there are serious consequences, when the very person doing the preaching seems to have eluded any real ones of her own?
Thank you, Kenneth Foran and Gwendolyn Lewis, for showing some intelligence and backbone.
Edith Clance
Alexandria
