Letter: Imagine it’s in Peterborough

Imagine the prosecutors closing arguments to the jury: “Closing the elementary school in your town forces your children to be bused out of your community. It causes less personal attention from their teacher resulting in lower academic achievement. The ‘savings’ from the closing are already spent by administration; you see no reduction in your tax bill. Your falling property values from the town having no elementary school damages your current and future financial security.  You have no say how the heart of your town, the place where your children played, made lifelong friends and built the foundation for their education will be discarded. Unless, of course, you inflate your town taxes to purchase the building from the district. Your town loses, loses again, and then gets a further beat down just because.” 

Then he finishes his argument: “Now imagine that elementary school is in Peterborough.”

An embarrassed murmur passes through the crowd and in the background you hear an elitist scream, “But what about my four years of Latin!”  With apologies to John Grisham in “A Time to Kill,” this is the scenario being placed in front of voters of the ConVal district in March.  The school board would have us believe it is perfectly acceptable for them to cast aside the children and taxpayers of small towns in the district; they feel they can tread upon the minority without retribution. 

If you don’t remember, the actual line from Grisham’s book is “Now imagine she’s white.” Let that sink in before you vote.

Jim Kingston

Temple