Students are unprotected in morning
Letters to the EditorPublished February 13, 2005
Re: Wilcox plans to reorganize bus office, story, Feb. 2.
As a junior at Countryside High School in Clearwater, I am continually troubled by a situation I encounter as a student every day. That is the safety of my fellow students.
I am encouraged by some of the changes that school superintendent Clayton Wilcox is proposing, but I must still ask: Why does it take a student death to bring about change? Is that what it will take at my school before we have a police car monitoring the morning traffic? I see them monitoring church services exiting on Sunday mornings and wonder why we can't have the same attention. I am hoping someone will take action before we lose another student.
My school is located near a major intersection in this county and traffic flow, especially in the mornings, is extremely heavy. To complicate the situation we have students trying to cross a six-lane highway on foot to get to the school in the early morning light, often darting between cars. Many students driving to school are rushing, half awake and do not have much driving experience. What concerns me is that there is no supervision for this situation.
Just recently, a student was hit trying to cross the street during the morning hours. A few months ago my cousin, Rebecca McKinney, was killed by a motorist while exiting a school bus a few miles from our school. I don't want to see another needless death. Can't changes be made now, before it is too late for one of us?
-- Jonathan Irion, Clearwater
Stronger efforts needed to keep kids from choking
Our family is very grateful that our son is unharmed after choking on a piece of hard candy (4-year-old who saved his brother declared a hero, story, Jan. 10). Since this horrible episode, we have learned that not every family is so lucky. Every five days a child in the United States dies from food choking, and more than 10,000 children are taken to the emergency room every year for food choking-related injuries.
We appeal to U.S. Rep. Mike Bilirakis to help protect children from choking on food. U.S. Rep. Mike Honda has introduced a bill in Congress that would authorize safety labels on foods that are especially dangerous to children to advise parents and caregivers how to safely prepare and serve food to young children. It would also make CPR classes widely available.
As chair of the Health Subcommittee, Rep. Bilirakis' support of this legislation could ensure that future choking tragedies will be prevented.
-- Andy and Ursula Stenberg, East Lake
Another question to ask about same-sex benefits
The story, Candidates comment on mission statement, Feb. 7, reported that Ron Schleffler, co-chairman of the Christian Coalition of Pinellas County, asked if it was fair for Christian taxpayers to pay for benefits for same-sex partners of Largo city employees.
A companion question which should have been asked is, "Is it fair for same-sex couple taxpayers to pay for benefits for partners of Christians who would deny benefits for partners of same-sex employees?"
-- Palmer O. Hanson Jr., Largo
What we're asking Iraq is not what we practice
Re: Christian Coalition queries local candidates, story, Feb. 4.
The irony of this is while we are on our way to becoming a "Christian" theocracy, with many in Congress gaining their position through the help of the churches, we are asking Iraq, which has known only Islamic theocracy for centuries, to become like us, a secular democracy.
-- Upton VanEtten, Clearwater
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