Justice not served

To the editor:

It seems to me that those appointed to office in our system need to know they are serving the people with “We trust in God.” If this truth were practiced every day with everything we say and do, justice would be truly served.

How in God’s name can they sleep knowing that one man voluntarily drinks alcohol, which we all know hinders your thoughts, words and actions, and winds up killing a beautiful, talented young woman, who had a lot to offer the world, and serves four months? Is this not a felony? Where is the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms?

On the other hand, here is a lovely, educated couple operating a beautiful business that serves its clientele with peace and honor. Mr. Morris has fallen through the cracks of the minds of the appointed. He did not ask to contract Lyme disease. Is it his fault the doctors did not detect this serious illness before it totally engulfed his physical and mental being?

Those in the judicial system need to do a lot of soul searching. Mr. Morris needs medical attention, not detention in Ossining.

Those who are educated in this disease know it is debilitating, as we have witnessed in this case.

Dedicated to mediocrity?

To the editor:

During election season, our Commonwealth released SAT scores for all public schools in the state. Delaware Valley is, at best, average in Pennsylvania. The conclusion one might draw about a school district that is average, in a state that is near the bottom of the list nationally, in a nation that is at the bottom of the list of developed nations, is that Delaware Valley is one of the worst performing schools in the industrialized world.

From the graduating class of 2008, for example, not one graduate was admitted to a highly selective college. We seem to have become accustomed to believing that of 300 or so graduates, not one is of Stamford caliber; no math whiz measured up to MIT or RPI standards, and we didn’t even produce a student interested enough in money to pursue admission at Wharton.

Everyone knows what needs to be done. Some schools are employing methods and programs—smaller classes, longer school days, more contact hours on Saturdays and during summer, meaningful homework, etc.—that yield startling results (search “Knowledge Is Power Program” or “KIPP” to learn more). Our failure to move toward improving education at Delaware Valley leads to one of two hypotheses: either we are dedicated to mediocrity, or we are incompetent as educators. How else to explain this?

There are no excuses any more. Delaware Valley is spending as much or more per student as some of the most successful schools in the nation. If someone asks where the money is supposed to come from for revamping education at Delaware Valley, one of us, perhaps someone on the school board, has to have the courage to reply, “That’s a question we’re paying our administrators to answer, not ask.”

One might think superintendent Candis Finan and her husband Tom, director of secondary education, would want to do something positive to ensure their legacy—and I’m not talking about dead-end sports championships that mislead students and parents into thinking we have a great school. By any academic measure, we don’t.