For want of answers
Beth-Center School District has refused to take action against a bus driver who has been harassing three honor-roll students since October. The parents had a petition signed by 90 people to get action. They took it to the school board meeting, Dec. 19, where business manager Mr. Jodi Nepa took the petition, read it over and put it in a book. We aren’t sure if the board has ever seen it, and we don’t know how to get anything to the board without Mr. Nepa intercepting it.
The parents, grandparents and the students wrote letter after letter and can’t get anywhere, because everything goes to Mr. Jodi Nepa, or the superintendent, Mr. Herman Jackson, with no response.
The three children, one 13 and two 11 years old, on Oct. 15 were left standing with no ride to school because Mr. Nepa and Impiccini Bus Lines changed the bus stop. The bus driver drove past the children, pulled in a driveway down the road and told the three children to walk down to the bus. When a mother told the driver where the stop was, the driver slammed the door shut, backed out of the driveway dangerously fast and drove back past the three children at a high speed, leaving them along the road with no way to school.
The parents called the school and the bus line, while one parent drove the children to school and went to Mr. Nepa asking for immediate action.
This bus driver has harassed and demeaned the children of these parents over a situation which the driver has no involvement. The parents and the children can’t get any justice over a meddling bus driver who has put these children in a position to sit like statues afraid to move, waiting day after day for this to be resolved.
Mr. Nepa has strung the parents along stating there would be a meeting to move the bus driver, but nothing has happened.
On Feb. 21, Mr. Nepa spoke to one of the parents, stating he would set up a meeting and would call back on Feb. 24. At this time, the bus driver had been off due to illness for approximately two weeks. Mr. Nepa assured a parent that the driver would not be back until a meeting was held, yet on Feb. 24 the driver was back, and Mr. Nepa had become once again unreachable.
The children’s civil rights and the zero tolerance of harassment have been violated.
Patricia West
Fredricktown
Have we forgotten 9-11?
I am in amazement of the present political climate within this great country. So I ask, why have we forgotten? Sept. 11, 2001 was a day in infamy in our history. We were attacked in the homeland; all of us grieved, flew the flag, rallied behind our president and generally came together as a nation.
Our president announced an Axis of Evil was present in the world and was a danger to our freedom. We embraced him and believed him. The axis of evil is Iraq, North Korea and Iran. They harbor, train and finance the very terror that caused the violation of our freedom. So the president said we would get them, root them out, and eliminate the danger to our country. We backed him and believed him. The war on terror was declared and we accepted it.
So now one year and five months later, he is attempting to eliminate this danger, and he is criticized for his courage to carry out his conviction to protect our freedom. Why have we forgotten? This is not a war against Iraq; it is a war on terrorism. The bleeding hearts say they do not feel threatened by Saddam. Did you feel threatened prior to Sept. 11? I think not. So you want to wait until another terrorist act is savagely brought upon us, or should we eliminate the roots of evil that cause it? Why have we forgotten?
I recall dancing in the streets of Iran in celebration of the death of 3,000 of our citizens, who only went to work that day. Why have we forgotten? Do you remember the people who jumped instead of burning? Why have we forgotten? Do you remember the people in the streets crying, covered with soot and dirt? Why have we forgotten?
It is time we unite as a nation, fly that flag again, realize that our freedom is at stake and do not forget. Our president holds the future of our nation in his hands and in his heart, and his decision is for our country not the rest of the world. Let us embrace him and pray that his decision is based on freedom, which I will never forget.
Norman J. Ciaccia
Farmington