School closures no reason for hatred

Kriss Hurdle's Jan. 31 letter is way out of line. She's completely off base when she writes, "Would any parent in their right mind put their precious child in a position of language barrier, copy-cat gang behavior, a large lostinthecrowd position and overall lower test scores?"

Yes, Kriss, the parents and grandparents of students who attend Manzanita are in their right minds and have their precious children attending Manzanita for a very simple reason: your assertions are baseless.

The facts are that we do not have "copy-cat gang behavior" or gang behavior at all. When vandals graffitied our school, our students were devastated.

You're trying to save your school with the "overall lower test scores" argument. Your lifeboat is full of holes. All of our students speak English: most are also fortunate to be bilingual as well.

It's unrealistic to expect a student learning English to perform as well as their English-only peers. However, when you compare the scores of the students with "language barriers" to students in surrounding districts, you'll find they're doing amazingly well.

Furthermore, Manzanita students who represent the demographic population of Maple outscore Maple students. In fact, they score in the top 10 school in California.

Why? Because we have a great teaching staff, principal, active PTA, site council and student body who desire to achieve.

My child is an IWEN (Individiual With Exceptional Needs). She thrives at Manzanita because the staff cares enough to teach unconditionally, unlike at other schools. At Manzanita, she's successful because teachers believe in the ability of each student to achieve their full potential and take the time to teach and augment the curriculum in a way that supports her needs as well as those learning a second language.

Although I can appreciate the anxiety parents are feeling, I can't appreciate the mean and disrespectful things that are being said in the community that can only be attributed to hate.

Lastly, I want to thank Michelle Page and the parent leadership at Maple in their attempts to stop this vile, bigoted and ignorant dialogue by a few rogue parents.

Manzanita supports the freedom of speech, just not hate speech. Jo-Anne Guerriere Newbury Park