Suspending young children should be

a school's last resort

People have expressed surprise at the lack of common sense in suspending a 6-year-old boy for bringing a camping utensil to school ("Camping utensil for boy, 6, gets him a 45-day school suspension in Delaware," Oct. 13). Unfortunately, as an education advocate working with low-income families, I have witnessed a similar lack of common sense in some of our area schools.

Legal Services of Eastern Missouri represented a kindergartner who faced long-term suspension after being left unsupervised by a substitute teacher and scratching another kindergartner with a pair of safety scissors. Even more troubling are the children who are suspended multiple times. Suspending a child for the fifth time rarely has a different outcome than the first through fourth suspensions.

Many times, the behaviors are the function of a child struggling academically or have an unmet mental health need. Suspensions only aggravate these deficits.

Instead of suspension, these children need help. Parents should seek out tutoring and mental health services, but schools must do their part. Public schools have an obligation under federal law to identify children who need special education and provide them appropriate services. Schools must fulfill this obligation, and we need to ensure they have the resources to do so.

I have met great educators in our area, but a child never will benefit from them unless she is in the classroom. Schools should use common sense, provide special education services when needed and suspend young children only when absolutely necessary.

Lucas Caldwell-McMillan — St. Louis

Project Manager, Children's Health Advocacy Project, Legal Services of Eastern Missouri



Someday, a walkway

Someday, I hope in the very near future, I'll have the opportunity to walk directly from downtown's historic Old Courthouse to the Gateway Arch memorial ground's new entrance without any interference. I would enjoy the magnificent view of the Arch and its setting as I walk the distance via a new pedestrian thoroughfare that was provided after the troublesome Memorial Drive Boulevard was removed at this key location downtown.

Let us be optimistic in our thinking and hope that this new pedestrian passageway connecting downtown with the Arch grounds will become a reality and be incorporated in the final National Park Service Master Plan.

Donald R. Smith — St. Louis County

Judicial retention

The story "Woman now faces 4th DUI" (Oct. 21) said, "An ongoing Post-Dispatch investigation has revealed that St. Louis-area authorities routinely fail to charge persistent drunken drivers with felonies."

Perhaps the paper should publish the names of the judges who do this just before they are up for retention so that voters who see this can be guided in their vote.

Jack Collins — Kirkwood



Healthy options

I was very disturbed that a biology professor at Washington University said in "Clayton is clucking, and feathers are ruffled " (Oct. 21) that the benefits of keeping backyard chickens "include healthier eggs with less risk of salmonella than factory-farmed eggs, elimination of carbon emissions in transporting eggs and a reduction in pesticide and fertilizers."

Let's be realistic here. I don't know where the professor got his information, but he is not correct. While what he said sounds good, he is choosing the less optimal practice. Being a biology professor does not make him an expert on the egg industry.

Realistically, not everyone wants to raise chickens. While we at Rose Acre Farms, which has farms in several Midwestern states, including Missouri and Illinois, do believe in the freedom of consumer choice, we also want to raise our chickens in the most humane, environmentally friendly system that also makes eggs affordable.

Amanda M. Tiemeyer — Seymour, Ind.

Publications, Rose Acre Farms



Decriminalize medical

marijuana in Missouri

President Barack Obama has finished one portion on his full plate by keeping his promise to stop arresting medical marijuana users. It is time for Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon to follow suit.

The savings to government are real and available. Mr. Nixon should do it before the E. coli hits the fan and more programs run out of money.

Rod Wells — St. Charles



Where will we get

health care workers?

It's shame when serious concerns about proposed new health care legislation are portrayed as anti-reform or even just politically motivated.

I've been a nurse for 40 years, and I have a serious concern that I have not seen addressed: If we want to ensure good health care for an additional 40 million people, where are the plans to increase the number of doctors and nurses to treat them?

And if some new programs to get more men and women into health care professions are developed, we must make sure that we guarantee the quality of new professionals, not just the quantity.

Nancy Valko Scannell — St. Louis County



Peasant revolt

Regarding "Top execs' pay slashed; Fed will police bank policies" (Oct. 23): This probably will not create thousands of jobs for middle-class families — but some wife or girlfriend may not get a platinum diamond ring for Christmas (as advertised recently in the Post-Dispatch for $1,880 to $1 million from Tiffany).

It is a start, but we need much more of the same. Long ago in England, the peasants did revolt.

Harriett Gray — St. Ann



Violating rights

Regarding "Top execs' pay slashed; Fed will police bank policies" (Oct. 23):The federal government does not have the constitutional authority to dictate executive pay.

The U.S. government (taxpayers) does not own AIG, Citi, General Motors, etc.; it is only a (large) minority stockholder in these companies.

There are legal procedures by which stockholders may recommend changes to any company's policies, but no stockholder can dictate policy, management decisions or take over a company without first owning a majority of stock.

All such changes are voted on and passed by a majority of stockholders.

The Obama administration is flagrantly violating the legal rights of all the other stockholders in these companies, just as it violated the legal rights of the Chrysler and GM bondholders.

Doug Baker — Fenton



Another handout

With all the supposed high-caliber brains who draw large salaries in our government, one of them should have the intelligence to figure out a simple alternative to the wasteful method the government is using to satisfy the demands of the very people — the bank executives — who created this problem ("Top execs' pay slashed; Fed will police bank policies," Oct. 23).

The solution is simple: For every dollar these indebted corporations give to executives for bonuses, a matching dollar would be repaid to the government to decrease the amount the company owes.

Can the money they receievd truly be called an honest debt? It really is another handout to make sure that the politicians in the next election have very generous supporters.

M.A. Barnes — Warrenton