Are teachers afraid to speak up?

If letter writer Stacie Brooks ("School District 1 in severe need," April 14) had "a close relative" working as a teacher in Yuma Elementary District 1, why did she learn about these "resource" problems only recently and in conjunction with that relative leaving their job in the district?
 
Was that teacher afraid to speak out while still working? And, why was that teacher's name not given? Is he or she afraid that they will not be hire-able elsewhere? Also, if "teachers are doing their best," as Brooks suggests, why is the newspaper not flooded with letters, not from relatives or parents, but from the teachers themselves?
 
Could it be that all these hundreds of so-called "teachers" are taking their paychecks home and "just going along to get along?"

For years I have been calling for a public teacher's forum, and have even offered a free place to have one, and yet no such forum ever materializes. Why? Is it because teachers know all too well that when they do speak out and criticize what goes on in their schools they will be publicly accused of criminal behavior and hounded from their jobs by those who, if they were actively investigated by the police, the county attorney and the press, would be found to be themselves indictable?

In conclusion, if there are so few teachers who have the requisite courage and are willing to speak out, isn't it sheer emptiness, and an invitation to a just contempt, for the majority to continue to teach that it is wrong "to go along just to get along?"


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JAY CLARK
Yuma