Our public schools are no ivory tower

My heart goes out to the Goldberg family for having to suffer through what must be a very difficult and frustrating time as it relates to the penknife problem ("Citizens need to stand up for common sense," Dec. 6 Thousand Oaks Acorn).

This is but another example of an educational system, and those charged with its management, run amok. And while I share Mr. Goldberg's plea for common sense, I'm afraid that we won't find any at Conejo Valley Unified School District.

While this inability to think "outside the box" isn't unique to our little corner of the world, it becomes much more pronounced in situations such as these.

Other illustrations: incompetent and ineffective teachers within CVUSD who are allowed to continue; one board member who's censured for nothing more than trying to find out what his constituents want while another, on official business, asks kids questions of a sexual nature and she's not even publicly rebuked; and drugs being sold on our high school campuses.

Unfortunately, common sense is dead, and it's buried at CVUSD.

One can only hope that the body politic heeds your call, Mr. Goldberg, and does begin to pay attention.

As the next campaign season arrives, let's elect those individuals that won't be the puppets of the unions and that will attempt to return some sanity to the school district. Paul S. Kessler Thousand Oaks