School Closing Is No Laughing Matter
Re: Your article headlined, “A Laughing Matter--UCLA Extension Offers Training in the Art, Craft and Therapy of Comedy” (Times, Feb. 16.). It was . . . three years ago . . . that UCLA Chancellor Charles E. Young announced his intention to close the Fernald School, which for the prior 60 years had helped children and young adults with learning disabilities overcome their handicaps.
Chancellor Young and the University of California administration justified the closing of Fernald on the ground that it was not part of the University of California’s “mission” to teach people with learning disabilities. Yet UCLA now publicizes with pride its “mission” to teach people how to laugh. I cannot understand UCLA’s priorities.
The Fernald School has been closed for more than two years. We are still desperately searching, but in vain, for a suitable alternative school for our daughter who has a learning disability. That is no laughing matter.
HAROLD FRIEDMAN
Los Angeles
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