LETTERS: Bullying, school budgets and more

No easy answers to stop bullying . . .

In new legislation attempting to curb bullying in schools , the Suffolk County Legislature states, "some teachers and school administrators do not take the issue of bullying seriously and fail to intervene adequately."

This assumption of incompetence and neglect is misguided. No educator will claim that bullying and cyberbullying are not very serious issues both inside and outside of our schools. However, the county legislature's solution, which is based on pointing blame and dictating punishment, will do nothing to help our students.

A principal once told me, "You can't bully a bully into not being a bully." The issue requires a thoughtful approach that enhances the current state school-safety laws to include: 1) student education and engagement, 2) school-faculty training on identifying and reporting bullying, and 3) enhancements to district codes of conduct that guide administrative actions, rather than criminal sanctions based on subjective interpretation.

Fast and furious legislation will not stop bullying in our schools. A collaborative effort focusing on education and school climate can make the difference.

Kevin Casey

Latham

Editor's note: The writer is executive director of the School Administrators Association of New York State.

Although I agree that character counts, the culture now values tangible ideals: success, affluence, accomplishments. Those old intangible values like integrity and kindness are as passé as the yellow pages.

Today parents teach kids to stand out, not to stand up. The message kids get is to achieve and become popular. Parents often fail to address bullying because they don't want to risk their young adolescent's place in the popularity puzzle. Yet research shows that these alpha kids are prone to tearing others down, perhaps to neutralize the competition.

While parents need to take the bully issue by the horns, the real power lies with school administrators. If they suspend and stain a child's record for misbehavior, both aspiring kids and grade-conscious parents will get the message that bullying is not in their child's best interests. Legislation makes the principals more accountable and likely to act. This tack may not be the character-driven incentive we'd like to see, but we all have to deal with the world the way it is now.

Margaret Sagarese

Riverhead

Editor's note: The writer is a parenting author who has written about issues facing children and parents in the middle school years.

. . . but the Golden Rule would be a good start

In response to a recent letter regarding bullies and teaching children to stand up for themselves , I have another idea. How about teaching your children to be nice? How about, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"? Kids don't have to like everyone, but they should be taught to be kind and tolerant of others.

Llyn H. McLaughlin

Rockville Centre

Majority support doesn't make it right

A recent letter argued that the media should focus on the fact that the majority of Americans are in favor of the Arizona immigration law. Fortunately, our founding fathers, having lived through the tyranny of the British, established a Constitution that was created to protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority.

The fact that the majority of Americans might be in favor of a particular law does not make it legitimate. It is conceivable that a poll of Americans in the mid-1800s would have been in favor of maintaining slavery, or that a poll taken today would show that a majority of Americans would approve a law deporting certain ethnic or religious groups.

Just because a law is popular does not make the law any less repugnant.

Robert Tolle

Cedarhurst

Blumenthal should quit Conn. senate race

The Associated Press story published in Newsday on the lies Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal told about his (nonexistent) military service "in Vietnam" avoided using the word "lies" . It quoted his own self-serving characterization of only having "misspoken, totally unintentionally, a few misplaced words on a few occasions."

It's clear he was (calculatedly) lying in order to get elected senator in Connecticut. If he was telling the truth when he said, "I take full responsibility," he would immediately drop out of the race, pledge to never again run for public office, and apologize to every single veteran (or their survivors) who did serve in Vietnam.

Richard Siegelman

Plainview

For once, Wyandanch voters just said no

To say I was surprised at the electoral defeat of the Wyandanch schools' proposed budget would be an understatement . The only thing more surprising was school board president Denise Baines' assertion that with the defeat "we may have to close the schools down."

The Wyandanch school system currently spends more than $17,000 per year, per student. Wyandanch schools rank near the bottom of the state's districts for a number of reasons, but lack of money is certainly not one of them.

It will be interesting to see how the administrators of the district react should their proposed budget again be rejected by the people, along with the 13 percent property tax hike to fund it. If that happens, what will be cut? Programs for "the children" or the salaries and perks of the people who run the schools?

For once, the voters of Wyandanch saw past the endless assertions that it's for "the children" and just said no.

Christopher J. Maloney

Wyandanch

Levittown school chief misplaced the blame

Levittown schools Superintendent Herman Sirois placed the blame for his budget's failure on the news media . I think a more intelligent explanation would be that the 3,250 residents who voted the budget down were demanding that Sirois show some fiscal responsibility. His latest budget is a 6.12 percent increase over last year's. That is the largest year over year budget increase of all Nassau County school districts and almost twice the average of all Long Island districts.

For those across Long Island who voted to pass their budgets if only to "do it for the kids," these would be the same kids who will later leave Long Island because they can't afford to help sustain the school tax base we left for them. Consolidation is the only answer, but residents and politicians alike don't have the resolve or the leadership to get it done.

Bob Bascelli

Seaford

Maybe it is all for kids

I read all the rhetoric about the school budgets and how it's "all for the kids" and find myself doubtful. Then I read about Caitlin Warshauer "Project Prom," Explore LI, May 19], a student who is paying all her own expenses to the prom, taking a lifelong friend as her date and has signed up for a six-year stint with the National Guard. Suddenly I realize that maybe, if this is the type of young adult a school budget can produce, maybe it is all about the students.

Dave Smith

Hicksville