To the Editor:

I’m confused…

Is it just me or are others who have been attending and/or following recent Board of Education meetings confused?

A January 28th article in The Bee expressed that the Board of Education Chair, Deborra Zukowski, was changing the preamble to open future meetings citing, “Anything that comes up and adds incendiary language can add a spark, and I just don’t want to see that spark happen.”

She was also quoted as she discussed that the “tone of public participation began to nose dive meeting after meeting” and so she needed to change the preamble to prohibit “loud and distributive clapping” so that the public would not be intimidated to speak.

Was there not clapping at last night’s BOE meeting? In fact I thought I even saw Deborra Zukowski clapping as well.

Is there clapping police out there who will tell us when there is a good time to clap (unmasking children in schools), and when it is deemed inappropriate (support for DEI)?

In my opinion, the one creating the climate of intimidation, “a dry forest full of kindling” and “adding a spark” is our own BOE Chair. How does one explain to children that what is fair for one is not fair for another?

Is it really “Nicer in Newtown” for all of us?

Lisa Shirk

Newtown