Dear editor:
Cutter Morning Star School District has made the news again. Not too long ago they were in financial distress and everyone, including my kid who went there, was fearful that Lakeside would swallow them up whole. Somehow, they recovered.
Just a few months ago, the voters in the district approved a bond sale that will create over $19 million to build a new school. Only 302 voters who lived in the CMS District voted to increase the millage. This shows a fierce loyalty to the school and to its future. I hear they are now questioning expenditures of the school. Perhaps this is good.
Along the way, they hired a new superintendent who has managed to get her picture in the paper a few times and I hear she even got her PhD. My guess is that she is priming the pump for a more grandiose job with much greater remuneration.
CMS is in the news now due to the paddling of a grade school student. The teacher and the principal apparently were "suspended" pending an investigation by DHS. Probably, this is protocol when a complaint is filed regarding the safety of a student.
When I was a student (sometime last century and in another state), an occasional whipping of a kid in school was pretty common. It was usually a result of not following the rules or simply not respecting authority or authority figures. Not playing well with others would get us in trouble too. Yes, even the girls received licks. It was pretty common for the whippings we received to leave whelps and bruises -- and however many "licks" we received at school, we knew that an equal number would be delivered at home. Once or twice, I dreaded going home to face my mom.
I don't remember hearing that a mom ever called Human Services to complain that her child had been punished. It was back when parents and teachers worked together, mostly in harmony, to make better humans out of us. However, in this day and age of entitlement, some parents just feel their kids are perfect and don't warrant consequences for bad behavior.
I was not shocked when I read that the teacher and principal were suspended by the superintendent and not by the school board. I had my own problems with her last year when I had an appointment with her to share an idea that would increase the school enrollment by 100 kids and she left me waiting for an hour and a half while she talked with someone else. I got up and left, never to return. Someone said that there was high teacher turnover. I wonder why?
John Grillo
Hot Springs
Editorial on 11/12/2017