I’m reading your Dispatch, Wednesday May 23, front page
– teacher pointing to a board, teaching students in shorts.
Who wears short shorts?
I’m reading your Dispatch, Wednesday May 23, front page – teacher pointing to a board, teaching students in shorts. I want to know if that’s appropriate dress for a teacher in front of third-grade children? Could you investigate if there is a dress code for these teachers?
Red Phone:
Dear Fashion Officer,
Are shorts appropriate for the classroom? That’s for you to decide.
Will shorts be worn in the classroom? That’s one for the teacher.
The district does not have a policy requiring teachers to dress in a particular way, said Laura Smith, of the district’s human resource office.
To introduce a teacher dress code, the district would have to include it in the next round of contract negotiations with the teacher’s union. Seeing how much difficulty schools experienced trying to get students and parents to abide by a uniform policy in the early part of the decade, it’s hard for us to imagine teachers – thinking of those dog days of summer school ahead – would give up their tanks and tees. Unless maybe the district was willing to pay a hefty sum.
Irritated about Islamic Center
What the hell did I see about a mausoleum being built in San Martin. Have we all gone mad? Do we not care about what the rest of the country thinks of us? My family has lived in the area for 56 years. I have seen a lot of things come and go … but, this. Do I have the wrong thought on this? Have I not thought this through? Or is this just a joke? Please tell me I am just dreaming. Or is our community taking this serious ?
Red Phone:
Dear Fearful,
No doubt you’re referring to the Islamic Center that has been proposed for construction on a hilltop in San Martin, off Monterey Road (See “Islamic Center Planned,” May 8 and “Mosque Forges Ahead,” May 16.) and not a multi-family high-density graveyard. Representatives of the center have reached out to people of other faiths and hope to share the site with Jewish and Christian organizations. So, what is it exactly that is so absurd about this being built? – that after your 56 years of living here diversity and freedom of religion could run rampant through your neck of the woods? That’s America. And that’s what’s great about it.
The trauma of the events of 9/11 have undoubtedly inspired anger, fear and a great deal of misunderstanding about Islam as a religion and culture. But Red Phone believes it would be counter-productive to brand and judge the world’s largest and fastest-growing faith by the actions of a handful of its more ideological professed members. How would caller feel if the Christian faith was weighed and measured by the atrocities committed during the Crusades or the mission period in America? Both saw great bloodshed and inhumanity, and both were done in the name of the cross. Before casting stones and reacting out of fear and anger, perhaps the entire community can take this project as an opportunity to engage in high-minded, civil debate, and as a chance to build bridges between different faiths. Anything less damns us all to repeat the tragedies of the past. One’s greatest handicap is a narrow mind. Let’s start some rehabilitation.
