To the Editor:

Many of us have to wonder about why there were two demonstrations in Newtown, a quiet town trying to still recover from the terrible tragedy we experienced years ago. We still have to wonder why no one in the school system ever raised questions about Adam Lanza’s behavior while he was in and out of school.

Now we find that parents are taking their children out of the high school due to the rise of serious incidents related to the use of drugs, to students bullying others, to the fact Newtown schools no longer rated in top ten category. Yet town residents are asked to continue to approve increased school budgets in spite of a sharp decline in student population in the past.

No one dare ask what is really going on with our “students mental development,” many of whom are unable to articulate what they have learned, who lack the necessary writing skills to succeed in college, who have not developed common sense abilities to figure things out when faced with real life challenges. But parents dare not question our superintendent, our Board of Education, our highly paid administrators to resolve these serious failures in the education model.

But instead of reading about successful programs to attack these serious problems that are depriving our student population to achieve their highest level of development, we now read Rebekah [Harriman-]Stites emotional letter calling for “political/social reform” in Newtown culture. Her explanations now reveal a serious ambition as the Board of Education Policy Chair to go to Hartford by seeking to replace our current State Representative, Mitch Bolinsky, who has a record of accomplishments in Newtown. But what is strange is that with few tangible accomplishments as a Bd/Ed Policy Chair, she now embarks on a new political career by organizing the recent BLM demonstrations, inviting students and parents to raise the issue of systemic racism in Newtown. But she now claims “she will no longer stay silent about what is happening in our schools.” She “will now demand and implement change.” Rebekah [Harriman-]Stites, [why] didn’t you speak up before?

I strongly suggest that she quit her political ambitions and devote her efforts to solving the aforementioned critical issues affecting our students. Children’s psychological development is the ‘Education Priority’ that Rebekah [Harriman-Stites], the Board of Education and the superintendent have failed to successfully implement due to their outmoded belief that education is about testing the regurgitated content that most students forget in ten years.

Dr Rudy Magnan

60 Watkins Drive, Sandy Hook June 30, 2020