Dear Editor,

I went to Polk County schools my entire education (K-12). Granted, I hated school while I was in it and wouldn’t go back for anything, but I still believe that Polk County has some of the best schools in the region, or rather believed. After hearing about so many ‘observations’ and witnessing a couple myself, I’m beginning to wonder where the schools, leaders, and teachers went that were around 10 and 15 years ago. I’m sure that the concerns that I’m bringing up are just the tip of the iceberg, and some of these REALLY need to be addressed. This does NOT however, got out to EVERY employee of the school system… we still do have some good ones and we have also lost some very good ones due to actions taken by our ‘leaders’. To begin…

These things have been going on for a while, longer than I’ve been old enough to care. What really got me to thinking was an incident at Hardee’s a couple weeks ago. I just happened to sit towards the back of the dining area, where I noticed teachers from when I was in high school. There were about five others sitting with them that I couldn’t recognize having a meeting (no Hardees products present). Comments were made about retired teachers (mentioned by name) and how they needed to get younger people into ‘the profession’. Then I overheard talk about drinking.  Another attendee chimed in about what got them tipsy, and then another laughed and made a joke about getting drunk (about her). What? Am I hearing what appeared to be a teacher’s association talking about getting drunk out in public? I thought they were supposed to conduct themselves in a higher manner. There are a few reasons why this irked me and in future weeks, I'll explain more.

Rachel Terry

Benton