MAILBAG - Oct. 2, 1999

Lack of textbooks is a real problem

I have children at several schools in the Newport-Mesa Unified School

District and they all are lacking books (“Textbook shortage gets school

off to slow start,” Sept. 30). Mr. Boies at Newport Harbor High School

may want to explain why the students do not have a Physical Science book

to bring home or why the students taking Spanish are required to spend

$12 of their own (parents’) money to purchase the Spanish workbook that

is mandatory. At Ensign Middle School they, too, have a shortage of

Spanish textbooks. Even at the elementary school level there does not

seem to be enough English workbooks for the students to use as their own.

Why would the district even think of raising the issue of the possibility

of a tax bond measure when they can’t even successfully provide textbooks

to all students?

KATIE COLLINS

Newport Beach

Zero tolerance policy doesn’t live up to its name

“Zero” tolerance really isn’t. If it were, the violator would be EXPELLED

after the first violation. Instead, he is TRANSFERRED.

That’s like eating in a restaurant and finding a fly in your soup. The

waiter TRANSFERS it to the SALAD instead of discarding it altogether.

Zero Tolerance is a typical government program: misguided in concept,

ineptly executed, mindlessly punitive and unconstitutionally intrusive.

DON HULL

Costa Mesa

El Toro debate should focus on fairness

It is fair for South County residents to voice their concerns about El

Toro airport. What is not right is for them to perpetuate misinformation

about the subject. That is especially true when done for the purpose of

gaining sympathy from people who are less involved and not likely to know

all the facts.

Certainly not the only example, but a particularly despicable one, is

their claim that Newport Beach residents are trying to shove their

airport problems upon them. The truth is there are absolutely no plans to

close John Wayne Airport or to reduce the number of flights. Newport

Beach residents will still have the same amount of air traffic even with

El Toro.

It was the majority of countywide voters who passed pro-airport Measure A

and Measure S -- not just Newport Beach. It is not the Newport Beach City

Council who is planning El Toro or who has any authority, it is a county

project being accomplished to benefit the majority of county citizens.

The reason our county needs El Toro is to satisfy the predicted future

needs, certainly not the ridiculous and offensive assertion that it is to

appease Newport Beach residents. Oh, yes, those against El Toro will

claim John Wayne isn’t even at capacity. Well, John Wayne has 125 flights

each day, double what it was just a few years ago. On the other hand,

South County residents have none now that the military jets have left.

Experts have predicted the demand on airports will continue to increase

and everyone is aware John Wayne is far too small to handle the

additional growth without destroying a multitude of existing homes and

businesses. Obviously, Newport Beach does not want the airport to impact

them far more than it already does. It would destroy their city.

South County people have no legitimate right to criticize others for

expecting them to share the county’s air traffic needs. That is

especially true considering: 1) The El Toro site is 10 times the size of

John Wayne. 2) El Toro has 10,000 acres of buffer zone keeping it from

residents. John Wayne has Bristol Street. 3) South County residents are

among the biggest users of John Wayne. Knowing the facts makes a big

difference in deciding which community is being unreasonable.

B. TAYLOR

Newport Beach

Fellow skater shares frustration with city officials

I am commenting on the community forum the other day by Bill Sharp (“Time

to get rolling on building skate parks,” Sept. 21) I, like Bill, am

looked down upon by society because I skateboard -- even though I have a

family and two kids and own a home in this fine city and employ 100

people in Costa Mesa making skateboards. And I need the support of this

community to make this skate park project happen. We have been fighting

it for a year and a half. We keep getting knocked off, with people

saying, “Not in my neighborhood, not here.” “Hey, let’s support the kids”

... “Not here” ... “Let’s support the kids” ... “Not here.” We have

petitions and the parents in the neighborhood signing for no skateparks

and the kids signing for a skatepark. The problem with generational

change and one of the problems in society is the fact that people won’t

listen to the current generation. Skateboarding is not going away. It is

not disappearing. Our society needs to accept it and give these kids a

safe and legal place to play.

PAUL SCHMITT

Newport Beach

Violation of teachers’ rights not a new concept

What’s new about due process rights for employees being trampled on by

the Newport-Mesa School District (“Grading performance of teachers not

easy,” Sept. 16)? Ask a teacher in Newport-Mesa or elsewhere and they can

relate their own horror stories about how district and school

administration have routinely disregarded employee contractual rights and

manipulated personnel practices and evaluation procedures to meet their

own agenda. And they’ve spent plenty of our taxpayer dollars doing it,

too.

As far as the Brown Act and public meeting laws are concerned, there are

still some of us in the community waiting for the Daily Pilot to inform

readers of the outcome of the investigation into the last reported

violations made by the Newport-Mesa School District some time ago. These

district office and school board bullies really should be ashamed of the

way they have treated Ms. Wood, who has given 30 years of her life to

education. Is this what our kinder and gentler superintendent is all

about?

KENT S. MOORE Corona del Mar

Cox is right on El Toro compromise

I congratulate Representative Chris Cox (R-Newport Beach) who has taken a

common-sense approach to the El Toro Airport issue by stating he will do

everything possible to secure restrictions, thereby making it a more

friendly neighbor to the community. Orange County needs an additional

airport, even though some cities object! Cox offers the solution that

should be agreeable to everyone. Work toward a smaller El Toro, secure a

curfew so there will be no late-night flights and mitigate restrictions

on noise, number of flights and types of aircraft. Now why didn’t

Supervisor [Tom] Wilson think of that?

A. GALLAGHER

Costa Mesa

Lobster pain is not a gain

Please allow me to respond to Peter Buffa’s column about the police

officers in Irvine who temporarily pulled the plug on Sumo Sushi

restaurant’s Lobster Zone crane game (“A lobster tale the size of

Irvine,” Aug. 6). As Officer Dennis Ruvolo points out, this game subjects

lobsters “to unnecessary, inhumane treatment.”

Well guess what: so does cooking these crustaceans in your own kitchen.

There is little doubt anymore that lobsters, like all animals, can feel

pain. Most scientists agree that the nervous systems of lobsters are

quite sophisticated. For example, according to neurobiologist Tom Abrams,

lobsters have “a full array of senses.” Jelle Atema, a marine biologist

at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. -- and,

according to The New York Times, “one of the nation’s leading experts on

lobsters” -- says, “I personally believe they do feel pain.”

Indeed, anyone who has ever boiled a lobster alive can attest that, when

dropped into scalding water, lobsters whip their bodies wildly and scrape

the sides of the pot in a desperate attempt to escape. In the journal

Science, researcher Gordon Gunter described this method of killing

lobsters as “unnecessary torture.”

As they begin to understand these fascinating animals, more and more

people are deciding lobsters should be left in open waters, not placed in

a cooking pot. At the very least, surely we can all agree that turning a

sentient being’s death into a game has no place in a compassionate

society.

PAULA MOORE

Staff Writer, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA

Norfolk, Va.