Dear Anonymous-

In response to your post…I am neither an inmate nor is Espiritu an asylum. I am a parent, and a customer of the school. You implied that if I voice my opinion I am an inmate, thereby calling me and other parents either crazy or criminals. I am neither. I am simply a concerned parent who wants to see two people get their jobs back.

I don’t know who you are. I am sorry that you are afraid to give your name; we have been very respectful of everyone’s opinion. If you would like to talk to me personally I am available; simply email me at fixescs@gmail.com, or call my home phone. It is in the directory and I would be happy to set up a time for us to meet or talk.

The petition is just that: a petition. Do you support it or not. If you don’t, don’t sign it. I removed your name from the petition and placed your comments on the blog because it looks like you don’t agree with the petition. I did not remove you, I did not censor you, and I did not tell you to send your children to another school because you and I don’t agree. So, far over 81 families do support it and have a right to their opinions, as do I.

Like many families, we want to try to put an end to intimidation. Your comments like: ”it’s some parents who are misinformed about the extents of their rights.”, “you all have created a public personal vendetta”, “You pay tuition for a service to be provided, and if that service is not aligned with you, you go find it elsewhere”, and ” Take your kids out of ESCS” Whether you know it or not, these are threats, this is intimidation and it is wrong. I am not easily intimidated, but I know a threat when I hear one. Let me address one of them.

You pay tuition for a service to be provided, and if that service is not aligned with you, you go find it elsewhere”. Do the parents have no say in their children’s education? Do the parents who are the “consumers/buyers” have no say in the service that is provided? Does the school not need to listen to recommendations or concerns of the parents? If 81 families signed the petition do we all have to find another school? Can’t we work together to improve the school we have? Why is working to make things better a threat? Why is speaking up when you feel a wrong has been done, followed by threats? Isn’t this how we got into this issue in the first place?
I think part of the problem here is that the parents don’t have representation on the board of education and there is no process to air issues that a parent might have with the decisions made at the school. I know that you don’t think “we have that right”, but I think it’s a pretty good idea to have at least a resolution process so that perhaps issues like these don’t have to go to the bishop or the superintendant.

We wrote the email and organized the campaign because we felt that the decision was wrong, and unjust. I assure you I am a pretty shrewd guy, and no one “baited” me. We felt that we had no other choice as good Catholics and members of the church, school and our community to speak up. I am sorry that you do not agree with us, but you are welcome to voice your opinion, just as we have voiced ours.