Editor,
(This letter was also addressed to school board members.)
You ALL blew it! By being so passive, so restrictive, so opaque and stuck behind the times that-are-a-changin’ you let every student, every parent, every community member which looked forward to joining this national protest walk out, absolutely down.
Did any of you consider for a moment that you were wrong? Well, you are. All of you. Complicit by inaction has left a very unsavory taste on the back of my tongue.
The Laguna School District turned its back on Laguna Beach.
In one of the most progressive states, in a town that is considered to be the crown jewel of forward-thinking, progressive, loving, art-based community of kindred souls, our courageous Laguna Beach school students wanted to take a stand. They stood up to continued violence, inaction of Congress and a president who just knelt before the NRA. The Laguna School District was the opposite; you represented repression, no embrace, no change, status quo.
You took the old let’s hide-behind-the-curtain dispense confusion and never-take-a-brave stance instead of championing the children and adults who attend Laguna’s district. You should have all been there with American flags and sign of support to get military grade weapons of mass death off the streets!
Students everywhere are dying. Theater-goers are dying. People in places of worship, dying. Dancing exuberant music fans are dying.
I’m livid. So many more are also in this wonderful community. You put our youth, our future, the ones you truly represent, in second place.
Which one or how many of you are up for re-election this year? Whom among our community wants to take a stand to replace you?
A bigly sad day in our town.
The future is here, and you turned away.
Awaiting November 2018. Excited for March 24 March for Our Lives in Laguna Beach.
You’re all on notice.
Theodore P. Schraff III, Laguna Beach
Mr. Schraff the Third, your lividity is terribly misplaced if you think that adults are supposed to base decisions on protests by school children. Here’s a clue: we aren’t. Most teenagers aren’t wise enough, experienced enough, and mature enough to buy guns, but you think they are wise enough to advise elected legislators on federal law? That’s not where “the future” lies. If you were really so concerned with people dying, you would consider the fact that illegal drugs kill orders of magnitude more high school and college students than mentally ill with semiautomatic rifles. And no, not one of the shooters in America used a “military grade weapon.” You don’t even know what you’re talking about. Combat rifles are fully automatic, not semiautomatic. Rifles kill fewer Americans than baseball bats; are you proposing to outlaw bats too? “Whom (sic) wants to replace you?” Only another livid left-wing extremist.
John Jaeger, you don’t even live in Laguna. Go troll the citizens of Dana Point.
Here’s a teachable moment schools do not get involved in politics. Schools should enable free thinkers not push them to one side of the aisle.
John J. doesn’t get just like the School Board din’t get it. Thats ‘ok John, you have the right to be wrong.
Yikes…my (lack of) typing skills: *didn’t and That’s.