Letters to the Editors

What's next for disruptive students?

© St. Petersburg Times,
published July 5, 2001

Editor: An item from the June 26 Citrus County School Board meeting that resonates with me was the talk of enlarging the Renaissance Center, the space created for obstreperous students. I believe there was a suggestion an entire school be established for disruptive kids.

When I took my (losing) shot being elected to the School Board five years ago, there was a lot of hand wringing about the numbers of suspensions, expulsions and dropouts. Some of that hand wringing most likely contributed to the creation of Renaissance.

I am not an insider; I do not know what is happening in our classrooms. I do, however, read the newspapers and know that suspensions and expulsions continue in record numbers. (Dropouts don't get nearly as much press. Therefore, I cannot bring you up to date in that area.)

So, my question becomes, what is being done to reduce the numbers being shipped to Renaissance?

Early in my Citrus County residency I became involved with a community group wanting to make a difference for and with students. The group included some teachers who claimed they could recognize future "troublemakers" in kindergarten.

Has anyone addressed this issue?

Are there programs in place to prevent the 5-year-old troublemaker from one day becoming a great big troublemaker in a Renaissance classroom?

I do hope so.
-- Jackie Evans, Crystal River

It's high time they give common sense a chance

Editor: According to an opinion column printed in another Citrus County newspaper recently, the luminary visionaries of the county are again talking out of both sides of their mouths. In their latest efforts to fleece us further, they do so under the banner "Embrace Conservation."

It's revealing that this same bevy of self-anointed, chronic elitists, operating within the safety of their coven, accuse folks of "convoluted thinking" and throw all common-sense, dissenting views on pertinent taxpayer matters "out the window."

It bolsters one's belief that wherever the visionaries go to crusade in pursuit of "progress," the League of Women Voters (sorry, only Republicrats allowed), hangers-on, wanna-bes, recognition seekers, public trough feeders, panderers and hoaxers, are sure to follow. (My apologies to those left out.)

We're scolded and warned that water is of the utmost importance. No argument. Certainly it is. But, as is everything in life, the weather is cyclical. Soon, rather than later, the heavens will open up, easements will overflow and this drought will be history. Then where will our conservation-embracing crusaders lead us? It's a fact that virtually nothing has been conserved in Citrus County for many years and the citizens would dare them, between embraces, to conserve the tax-paying public's assets. Progressives, be careful what you wish for and envision, you might get it. Now, that doesn't sound convoluted to me.

One of the latest examples of largesse demonstrated by our conservationists is a gift of $600,000 (paid for by the Pigeons in Paradise) to Wal-Mart, so they can hook up to Crystal River's sewer system. Now, there's truly great planning.

Wal-Mart, one of the wealthiest companies in the world, and they need taxpayer money to help them increase profits, in conjunction (collusion?) with the Suncoast (toll) Parkway, designed to deliver the Pigeons in Paradise (and other environs) to Wal-Mart's doorstep? Give us pigeons and mom-and-pop stores a break, please. When we're gone, it's all over.

The Planners of Great Foresight envisioned (in their crystal balls): apartment complexes in Beverly Hills (occupants subsidized by taxpayers); a super-widening of County Road 491 (to accommodate traffic in 2050); a multimillion-dollar Citrus Springs center (folks are leaving there regularly); the aforementioned mega behemoth Wal-Mart to be coming to town, again (to conserve the environment and fight pollution?); and the also-aforementioned Suncoast Parkway looming (we're sternly admonished for our dissenting views and firmly warned that without it we're doomed if we fail to keep up with the Joneses).

And that's just a few visions.

The schemes devised by the purveyors of con (all not mentioned here) to separate the tax-paying pigeons from their private property, and other assets, to fund what might appear to some on the surface to be boondoggles and mix-ups by the boatload, defies description and boggles the mind. Or is something else going on here besides the usual smoke and mirrors?

All of this is about your freedom, folks, and the God-given right guaranteed in your Constitution to utilize that liberty by speaking your minds and not hesitating to question those who believe, for reasons best known to these elite "experts," that they have cornered the market on intellect and know better than you how, where, why and when to spend your money.

Enough is enough, visionaries. Take a break from your wrong-headed, convoluted thinking, or whatever really motivates you, and give honest and true common sense a chance.
-- Don Dragonette, Beverly Hills

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