Published: May 11, 2008 12:57 am            

What's next for our schools?

Just throw another log on the fire of American traditions.

The Meridian School Board, without any input from the public, has decided to ban the use of public schools as election polling places. The fact that there have been no incidents at polling places in Meridian, or Mississippi or even the nation does not seem to matter in the haste to protect our children from some unknown boogie man. What seemed to have escaped the minds of the school board is all of Meridian's schools are wide open during the entire school year and any crazed person can enter unchallenged. Their only concern seems to be protecting our children from those terrible voters.

If security is a concern, let us address that issue. However, to deprive children of the opportunity to witness democracy in action is a travesty. Let us not forget, America was the first country in history to establish a totally representative government where the people controlled their government by the voting ballot and not by the sword, the knife, or the gun. I can not think of a better lesson to teach our school children than for a teacher to take a classroom of students into that voting place and tell them the story of the thousands of sacrifices made by Americans, both past and present. These sacrifices gave all Americans the right to enter these hollowed place called voting booths.

In Greensburg, Salem — a township outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — the question was raised to remove polling places from schools. The local newspaper quoted “many school officials seemed unwilling to pull the polling places ... polling places give students a good lesson on their civic duties.”

The paper went on to say that they use gates and cameras throughout the school year to prohibit non-school personal from entering classroom areas – tactics also used during elections.

First we took prayer out of school, then we removed the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance and the singing of the National Anthem. Then we took geography and history out of the curriculum and now we want to take out the election polling places from schools. Why not! Just throw another log on the fire of American traditions.



Bill Marcy

Meridian

        

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