Dear Editor:
I wanted to indicate my support for Randy O’Connor and his
outstanding letter to the editor published on June 7.
Dear Editor:
I wanted to indicate my support for Randy O’Connor and his outstanding letter to the editor published on June 7.
On May 19, reporter Lori Stuenkel wrote a piece claiming that teacher Margaret Ota “helped” students in her senior English class access a Web site to see video of Nick Berg’s execution in Iraq. In that article there are no details as to how Ms. Ota helped, and the student quotations do not clarify the claim. The findings of an internal investigation do bear out that some students accessed the video at their desks using laptops, but not that Ms. Ota helped in any way.
On May 28, the editorial gives a “Jeers” for the Gilroy High School students that “apparently lied” about their teacher, Margaret Ota, and says that they should face school suspension. Again, none of the student quotes in the May 19 article support the article’s claim that Ms. Ota “helped” students access the Web site with the video.
The Dispatch has consistently subjected Gilroy High School to extreme scrutiny.
The job of a free press is to hold citizens and institutions accountable to the public good, so in that sense The Dispatch is right to do so. However, a rush to judgment about Ms. Ota was wrong and a rush to judgment about students does not make things right.
Students who felt that the viewing of the video in class was wrong were entitled to that opinion, and I don’t think any of us at GHS disagree with them.
If there has been any lesson learned, it is that nobody wins in a situation like this. The district has procedures to address student and parent concerns that could have resolved this issue without undue trauma to the teacher or the class.
We hope that The Dispatch joins us in referring families to those procedures in the future.
Bob Bravo,
Gilroy High School Principal
Submitted Tuesday, June 8 to ed****@****ic.com
EDITOR’S NOTE: The reporter made no such claim. Rather, she reported what students told her – that Margaret Ota helped students find the site. No students, however, gave specific details about how the teacher did that.
