Letters to the editor may be sent to [email protected]. All opinions stated in letters to the editor and guest columns are those of the author and should not be construed as an endorsement by Lowell’s First Look.
An open letter to the Greater Lowell community:
I am proud and grateful to call home this community that supports its public school district and those we entrust to lead and teach here. I am asking those who read this to take whatever action you can to continue that support: with letters of your own, by speaking out at Board of Education meetings, and by not being silent when adults behave in ways that reflect poorly on us all.
As many are all too sadly aware, our Board of Education members, administration, and teachers have been subject to disruption and veiled threats for more than four years, both in person and online, by just a few community members and one school of choice parent who has been relentless in her disrespect.
The recent video recording and harassment of our district librarian and its subsequent viral popularity on social media resulting in death threats to that staff member has absolutely, unequivocally crossed a line. This must stop.
Parents and community members have a right to question their board and to criticize them and their staff, but to disrupt the operation of this district to the extent it has been disrupted, and to allow by our inaction any member of our community to be targeted, both personally and professionally, in ways that threaten their safety and their well being, is appalling.
I urge our district to pursue every legal means necessary to ensure the safety of its staff and board, and to take every action available to enact barriers to access for those who violate rules of decorum, respect and basic decency.
The work that our district does, which we all support with our tax dollars, is far too crucial to students, staff and this community to be treated with such blatant and dangerous hostility.
Morgan Jarema
Vergennes Township
Note: This letter references a video that recorded an interaction between a parent and a LAS staff member during a Board of Education work session. You can read the LFL editor’s take on the situation in this article.
I don’t even live down there anymore but like I said in my last comment, I think it is a outrage that LAS has to put up with this distraction. Isn’t it important first that kids get their education and the educators make it better for the kids? Distractions and threats don’t make it easy for LAS and the kids that go to LAS!
It should be pointed out, again and again, that this person repeatedly argues that those in this community, including myself, “still don’t get it” when it comes to library books. But we do. We get it, and we disagree with her. The district gets it, and they disagree with her. The district has heard her complaints ad infinitum, and they responded, and the answer was no, they will not do it her way. There is nothing about the answer being “no” that correlates to “not getting it” or lacking in transparency. The answer is no.
We as a community need to support the people that spend their days helping us raise good humans! Thank you LAS!