Letters

It is a defeatist notion to accept that modern kids cannot develop respect for a teacher's authority. It's a lot harder to obtain this respect these days, but I think it's still achievable.

Perez's major mistake was improper documentation. In our suit-happy society, everything has to be documented. I'm sure Perez and the teachers could easily have documented suspendable offenses for each of the 97 students if they took a strict interpretation of the district's discipline code; many minor infractions can be lumped under "disrespect of authority.'' If Perez and the teachers hadn't been remiss in their paperwork, they would have had a much stronger case for doing what they did.

Using well-documented, strict discipline will ultimately protect the many good students who want to become good citizens. These are people who deserve our meager educational resources. We shouldn't let administrators and poorly behaved students steal these resources from those who would make the best use of them. We have to give up our egotistic desire to "save the sinners'' and focus our attention on the majority of kids who want to do well. Of course, if schools were given more resources, we might be able to achieve the American ideal of education for everyone, but we still would have to be conscious about whether the education of one unruly individual is costing us...