Pupil Perks Lost to War

As a teacher at Hillside Elementary School, I would like to express my outrage at the absence of factual information in “Hard Line By Teachers Puts Some Parents Off” (Times Nov. 23).

The article states that teachers at Hillside are arriving at school at 8 a.m. and leaving at 2:15 p.m. This is egregious misrepresentation of the facts.

The story stated that teachers wanted to close the “Haunted House.” The teachers were concerned about safety and requested the administration to have the fire marshal check the site. The administration agreed to this.

The statement that teachers have “worked-to-rule,” thereby victimizing students, is grossly erroneous.

Only last weekend, three teachers rewarded hard-working students with a special “privately funded” field trip.

Where do these funds come from?

From the same teachers who have “unfairly penalized students.”

Working in a district that is at war against us is more than difficult. Each morning I drive to school to be bombarded by the latest news in the war.

Parents have come to take our professionalism and caring for granted. They feel that what we have done in the past has been part of the contract. It is not. We have a war and the extras are casualties of that war. If there is finally a peace accord, then, perhaps, we can get back to what was once part of our day.

If parents find they sorely miss some of these extras in our school, perhaps it is time for the parents to come into the school and be part of the framework, and, as such, they can organize and put on, with the help of administration, those “special” events they prize so greatly.

JANICE O’MALLEY

Alhambra