School Offers One Chance Too Many

* I am absolutely outraged to read about the single-gender public school that has been approved in Orange County and will be funded by the state of California (Oct. 21).

As a parent of kids in the public school system, I have watched program after program be cut because of lack of funds: music, science, sports and field trips, to name a few. I have watched the number of kids in each class grow to outrageous numbers where one-on-one attention is nothing but a very distant memory. I have watched great teachers be cut from the faculty due to lack of funds.

Now I am to understand that the delinquents that have been kicked out of the [normal] public school system, or are Juvenile Hall or other correctional facilities students, are again being treated with kid gloves? This must be a joke and I must be on “Candid Camera.” The “last chance” school? How many last chances are we going to give these kids?

I live near a [continuation] school in Irvine. I watch these kids who have chosen not to follow the rules of society--rules all others must live by--these kids who are not self-motivated and were suspended or expelled from public schools because they caused trouble in class, slept during lessons, were never prepared with their assignments, did drugs, brought weapons to school or continually harassed the teacher or other students.

Why are we bending over again to give, give, give to these kids who have proved that they have no regard for their communities, schools, families and society in general? Why should another $500,000 be dumped into children who have had opportunity after opportunity to get themselves together and make something of their lives? Why are we not taking this money and placing it in the schools that are overcrowded, need more educators, crave more music, science and sports?

Of course the parents of these kids think the single-gender school is great. I would too if I had a kid who wandered the streets all day long while I was at work. I would want someone to pay for baby-sitting my kids too. And frankly, that’s exactly what this is all about.

Perhaps if the parents were more involved with their kids, the kids would understand that everyone who lives in this world has responsibilities. Whether they like the situation or not, they deal with it.

How did we get to this place? Where is the accountability? Parents are held accountable when their child starts a forest fire or vandalizes a neighbor’s house. If the parents of these kids want them to have an education that is to be taught anywhere but in the normal, everyday public schools that everyone has the opportunity to attend, then let it be the parents’ responsibility to pay for it!

KAREN SOLLIE

Irvine