School Trustees Lack Vision

Re “Differing Schools of Thought,” March 17, about Lampson Elementary School:

I am truly appalled by the sophomoric view Orange Unified School District Board President Martin Jacobson has on the role of education in our society. Jacobson’s profoundly limited insight into the role of education is disheartening. To assume that children will learn when basic needs are left unmet is naive. To allege that social needs and educational needs are somehow separate demonstrates a significant lack of sophistication on his part. Jacobson’s argument that having a family resource facility on campus “takes away campus space and takes the focus away from education” is an example of his lack of vision.

As a nurse, I applaud the Lampson school for realizing that individual students do not live in isolation but are parts of larger communities. We live in an age that demands new approaches to education. The Lampson school seems to have met that challenge by reaching out to educate the members of its community and ensure its community’s health for the future.

LISA SMITH

Costa Mesa

* The Orange Unified Board of Trustees’ proposed policy of prohibition of application for nonacademic grants is another blatant attempt to institutionalize racism in this country, because the majority of the recipients of these nonacademic grants are of an ethnic minority.

Additionally, the board is more concerned with reactionary ideological principles than the children of its schools, as demonstrated by the proposed policy to destroy the only supportive links these children and their families have. How can these so-called advocates for children take away food from a hungry child, needed medical and dental services, psychological counseling and support for their parents?

What the citizens of the school district need to do is launch a recall effort and get these incredibly inhumane and racist leaders out of power immediately.

DEBRA S. COVEN

San Clemente