Two letters on the bunny rescue story, one on doing away with
teacher tenure and another on the bocce ball city council
discussion
Police chief: Bunny rescue story ‘deliberately’ painted department in a bad light
Dear Editor,
The Gilroy Police Department would like to respond to the story written by Reporter Blair Tellers “Gilroy brothers ticketed for rescuing rabbit from creek.” We believe it is important to clarify the facts of the case and explain the dangers of the incident.
On Feb. 25 at approximately 3:05 pm, the department received a call of two males entering into Uvas Creek near Santa Teresa Boulevard and Third Street. The males were said to have been dropped off by an associated vehicle that left the area a short time later. The males were seen wearing wetsuits, helmets and had boogie boards in hand.
Officers responded to the area and located the two males in the creek. Officers told the males to exit the creek at that time. One of the males stated they were unable to exit the creek at that location. Other officers went downstream to Silva’s Crossing near Christmas Hill Park and awaited the two males.
The two individuals, Scott Adams and a juvenile, exited the creek just north of the crossing and were approached by officers. Officers asked them what they were doing in the creek. Their response was, “Nothing.” The officer attempted to explain to them why it was so dangerous and why they shouldn’t be swimming in the creek. They became argumentative and stated, despite being in possession of boogie boards that they were not swimming; adding that they had saved a rabbit. Both males were issued citations for the Gilroy Municipal code violation, 18.5 (e) GMC.
During this incident the waters of Uvas Creek had risen so high that the water was flowing rapidly over and under Miller Avenue which was closed to traffic earlier that morning for obvious safety reasons. Warning notifications were issued warning residents of the danger of the fast-moving water asking residents, especially children, to keep well clear of the creek water, which at this point was approaching flood stage as measured at the Luchessa Road Bridge.
Uvas Creek is known to rise rapidly during the rainy season and presents a danger to anyone entering it, including first responders required to rescue those trapped in the rising waters. Brush and debris along the banks of the creek make the area especially hazardous under these conditions. There are signs in and around the area prohibiting persons from being in the creek.
The danger of the actions taken by these two gentlemen is not hypothetical. Earlier this month two teenagers were pulled from a flood control canal in Contra Costa County after trying to negotiate the canal in a raft. Earlier on Friday, Gilroy firefighters and police officers pulled a dead body from the drainage canal near Forest and Lewis streets in Gilroy. The cause of death in that incident is still undetermined.
I believe this story, and the accompanying headline, intentionally attempts to paint the Gilroy Police Department in a bad light. To my knowledge the reporter, Blair Tellers, made no attempt to contact the department and check her facts before the story was posted. The photographs and trivial nature with which the paper treated this story, belies the very dangerous situation these two young men placed themselves. The Gilroy Dispatch missed an opportunity to serve the best interests of the community by pointing out the dangers, and potentially deadly outcomes of the foolish behavior Mr. Adams and his juvenile companion engaged in last Friday.
Unlike others, we are sworn to uphold the public’s safety, sometimes at the very real risk to our own lives. Fortunately, this story did not have a tragic outcome. Our public safety personnel see first-hand the tragic side of life, which thankfully most people don’t.
Denise J. Turner, Chief of Police
Editor’s note: Reporter Blair Tellers did attempt to contact the PD repeatedly Monday morning (a story without PD comment was posted on the website Friday evening) before updating the story for the web and the Tuesday print edition. She sent two emails to PD PIO Amanda Stanford, and left a phone message and received no response.
Silly for police to make such a mountain out of a molehill regarding the rabbit rescue
Dear Editor,
I read, with interest and delight, the article in the Tuesday Gilroy Dispatch about the policeman ticketing two young men for swimming in Uvas Creek. Talk about making a mountain out of a molehill; that policeman did it!
The two young men went swimming in Uvas Creek for a planned adventure. It was not a spur-of-the-moment decision to go swimming in the swollen creek.
They had planned this adventure ahead of time. They were wearing wetsuits, had flippers, gloves, and floats. They had knowledge and experience. The elder of the two has his name on a plaque on Alcatraz Island; a reward for an Alcatraz-to-San Francisco swim in which, out of several hundred swimmers, he came in with the first 25. The two brothers were well-prepared for this adventure; minimizing any risk.
Adventure is the spice of life. There is also a family tradition of rescuing animals from the creek. Did you read in the Dispatch’s letters section of the same day about the boys’ Aunt Celia rescuing a deer hounded by dogs and stranded on a sand island in Uvas Creek’s flood waters? Concern for nature’s creatures runs in our family.
These two boys are my grandsons, and I am proud of them for rescuing the drowning rabbit.
I do not think that the ticketing policewoman’s knowledge and beliefs fit into Gilroy’s “culture”. We are peaceful, law-abiding; and we love our beautiful countryside, including Uvas Creek.
If the boys broke the law, they were unaware that swimming was not permitted in Uvas Creek. I have not seen a “No Swimming” sign off Miller Avenue in years.
Remember … boys will be boys, and they mean harm to no one.
Joseph G. McCormack, Gilroy
If our society wants an
accountable education system then teacher tenure must go
Dear Editor,
Although I generally side with unions and the right to organize, I have to say that tenure for teachers is an abuse of the system. When I was in the 8th and 9th grade I had an incompetent English teacher who enjoyed abusing students. But the principal said that there was nothing he could do because of tenure.
Teachers with tenure can’t be fired. The very idea that some people get a job for life without any kind of accountability is just fundamentally wrong. The teacher stayed in her job till she was 65 and then went on to draw from the system for another 25 years till she finally died at the age of 90. I support the rights of teachers to have unions, but I also support the right of students to be protected from teachers who aren’t qualified to teach.
So I’ll support the teachers when the teachers support the students. Tenure must go.
Marc Perkel, Gilroy
All ‘bocced up’ over the bocce ball discussion at the city council’s goal-setting session
Dear Editor,
Recent articles in the Gilroy Dispatch provide a sterling example of how easily verifiable information can become a growing snowball of misinformation when not placed in the proper context.Â
In the “Our View” feature on the Opinion Page in the Feb. 22 issue of the Dispatch, it was misreported that 40 minutes was spent on the bocce ball court discussion at the recent City Council goal setting session which was held Jan. 28 and 29. One third of a page with associated cartoon was devoted to this subject.
The facts:
Total length of city council goal setting session – 13 hours and 40 minutes.
Total time spent discussing a potential Bocce Ball court – six minutes.
The original article on the subject by Mark Powell appeared in the Feb. 4 edition of the Dispatch. This initial article was well-written and factual, though it is unfortunate that almost 14 hours of council discussion on important topics such as public safety, economic development and budget challenges were replaced as the lead story on the front page by a lengthy article on the six-minute bocce ball court discussion.
In Editor Mark Derry’s Feb. 18 “The Word” column, the Feb. 4 story was again referenced as “Mayor Al and Dion Bracco’s $35,000 bocce ball court pitch. In actuality, there was no “pitch” made for a $35,000 court. Rather it was suggested that staff look at what was being done in other communities such as Monterey and San Jose, and report back on options.
The entire two-day goal setting session was videotaped and is available for viewing at www.cityofgilroy.org. The video is at: Â http://gilroy.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=16&clip_id=934. Just click section B.6 in the online agenda which appears to the right of the video window.
Don’t blink, the 6 minute discussion is easy to miss in the total context of the
two-day session.
Joe Kline, public information officer, city of Gilroy
Editor’s note: Our apologies on the time discrepancy. That representation made by multiple sources was not disputed for some time. There were five stories and two editorials related to the council sessions and regardless of the time spent, the Editorial Board believes bocce ball has no place on the Council’s one and only annual goal-setting meeting.
