Letters: BASD board ignores students’ opinions; GOP pushes, normalizes lies

BASD board ignores students’ opinions

I spent four years at Bellefonte Area High School, seven years in the district overall. In my time countless issues have been weighed by the school board: the Raiders logo, dress code, accommodations for varying sexualities/gender identities, and even discussions on whether or not Pride flags should be hung in teacher’s classrooms over worries that it was socializing the students.

Many arguments were had over all the issues listed above. Many parents came to speak at board meetings to give their opinions, some students voiced their opinions at these meetings as well. However, decisions made in regard to these issues came with one singular constant; they would undoubtedly affect the student. As a student who witnessed these board meetings, who went to school each day and heard the opinions of other students, I would have to argue that the student opinion was only an afterthought to the board.

Of course, it is easy for them to give no thought to student opinion. The board consists of representatives voted in by voting adults, so any decisions made that negatively reflect students’ opinions pose no risk to their jobs from kids who can’t vote. In a basic power hierarchy with the board at the top and the students at the bottom, I’ve seen the board make the conscious choice to outright ignore the opinion of the students. If you ask me, they must be held accountable for it.

GOP pushes, normalizes lies

George Santos, the just sworn-in New York State Republican congressman, is now a household name — for lying.

It’s well-established that Santos lied about where he went to high school and college, his work history, his mother’s death, where his money came from, what charity he founded, his grandparents surviving the Holocaust, his employees dying in the Pulse mass shooting, and to what faith he belongs (is he a Jew or merely Jew-“ish”?). A conman who scammed and hoodwinked voters and major Republican donors is a direct threat to national security and cannot be trusted in Congress.

George Santos is following the example of another prominent Republican — Donald Trump, who is documented to have told more than 30,000 lies during his four years in office.

Sadly, Santos fits in with the extreme, MAGA-wing of the Republican Party, which lies about election fraud, subscribes to outrageous QANON conspiracy theories, and about the reality of climate change and the safety of vaccinations.

The Republican Party pushed midterm lies about crime, inflation and taxes. Research shows that crime is actually rising faster in red states than in blue states. The primary cause of inflation is not Biden policies, but rather global post-pandemic shortages, corporate price gouging and the war in Ukraine. And Democrats didn’t hire more IRS agents to go after the middle class, but rather to finally have the manpower to audit and catch ultra-rich tax cheats.

We cannot entrust the fate of our nation to a party that pushes and normalizes lies.

Predator hunts serve no purpose

Participants in barbaric, unethical pay-to-play activities are neither sportsmen nor hunters; they are killers who inflict suffering and death on living creatures who are going about their lives. Coyotes, bobcats, raccoons, opossums, skunks, crows, bears, foxes, porcupines, cougars, rabbits, squirrels all have a place and purpose on our planet. They control the rodent population, ingest ticks and other harmful insects as well as discarded garbage. They have families and experience pain and serve no purpose as dead carcasses. These contests appeal to greedy and immoral individuals who think killing is fun. Young people are encouraged to shoot and kill woodland creatures and even run over them with snowmobiles. More and more guns are bought and introduced into our environment, risking the loss of innocent lives. Compassionate and right-thinking people condemn these assaults against animals for what they are — senseless slaughters.