Writer questions how much disruption walkout caused

Vox Pop

You could argue and I would agree that it is easy for me to say I support the student protest concerning the wearing of masks at Medford Senior High School. I think the students involved did the right thing in initiating this event.

The students involved have every right to question what degree of consideration their grievance would have gotten had it have been presented to the School Board. The Channel 9 WAOW coverage of the event stated the Administration and School Board was willing to listen to the issue the students had with masks. Ya, sure, uh huh, right. Just like the Administration and School Board listened to the voters after the first November 2020 High School referendum rejection.

The School e-mailed a letter detailing the consequences of participating in a mask protest. This was to be construed as “information”. Well if it walks like a threat, and quacks like a threat, it’s a threat.

I would question how much disruption this protest caused. Schools frequently run fire and severe weather drills. Most likely the protest was no more disruptive than one of those events.

We like to think we are educating our youth to think independently and form opinions on their own but that is only valid as long as it agrees with the needs of the Administration and School Board for total control.

Yuri Andropov leader of the repressive KGB in the former Soviet Union must be looking up from his final destination smiling in approval over the School Administration’s action.

Many of these students are just three years away from being able to join the military and ending up being involved in our foreign policy of endless war. Please give these kids more credit than that for their desire to stand up for what they believe in.

The last sentence of the editorial entitled “Don’t Forget Responsibility When it Comes to Rights” says it all. The sentence states, “If you choose an action, you choose the consequences of that action.” We have a number of publicized incidents in which individuals outwardly disregarded police commands to comply with an order. Those individuals chose an action and the result is obvious. But the main stream media and some politicians absolve those individuals of responsibility from their chosen action. So Star News, which way is it?

PS. It’s rather curious to note the April 22 edition of The Star News contains an admonition in the Write A Vox Pop section that states, “No election-related letters will be run the week before the election.” But in the April 1, 2021 edition of the The Star News immediately before the election there were a plethora of letters in support of the High School referendum and the admonition did not appear. Did The Star News conveniently delete that note for the purpose of promoting the referendum ?

— Bryan T. Bormann, Medford