DMPS students need our support. Let’s help.
I, like the rest of our Des Moines Public Schools community, are reading everything that is available to learn more about what happened on Sept. 26 with the DMPS superintendent. I know we are all wanting answers and I hope we learn more in the coming days and weeks.
This is what I do know. We are a caring, loving community and will always work to make things better for our students. I also know the DMPS teachers, staff, administration, and our elected school board leaders are hard-working, dedicated people who do what they do because they care about our students and community. I will always support those who work so hard to make things better for all students in every DMPS ZIP code.
DMPS and our students need our support right now, and there are things we can and should be doing to help them. Get involved, volunteer at any nearby school. Funding is insufficient, and we all need to do our part to support our teachers and students. Go to your elementary school and read to the kiddos, help the teachers. Support our students by attending their events, and provide encouragement. I know we have students who are scared, scared about what could happen to their parents or other family members. Be supportive.
Linda Westergaard, Des Moines
Kim Reynolds is selective about insisting laws be enforced
Gov. Kim Reynolds’ lack of solidarity with a beloved public educator defamed by the Department of Homeland Security as a “public safety threat” does not surprise me, but I am incredulous at her statement emphasizing a “nation of laws that must be enforced.”
Is this the same nation of laws that the governor disparaged last year when she declared Donald Trump’s conviction for falsifying business documents as a “sham”? How can one respect the “nation of laws” when “the only verdict that matters is the one at the ballot box”? You’d think one who said such things would show more empathy for a public servant in trouble with the law.
The governor is free to disparage the educators of the once-unrivaled public education system that her administration has crippled (it is not lost on me that Ian Roberts’ arrest comes amid the district’s campaign for a general obligation bond to support the Reimagining Education campaign or that state legislators have used this incident to further disparage the Des Moines school board), but this reader prays that Reynolds respects our intelligence next time and does not pretend that it is out of reverence for our “nation of laws.”
Cameron LaPage, Des Moines
So much for deporting criminals and drug dealers
President Donald Trump told Americans that Immigration and Customs Enforcement would arrest and deport criminals and drug dealers.
Instead they have arrested and are holding a man who came to the United States, became highly educated, paid his taxes and contributed to our society by educating our students for the past 20 years. It appears his only “crime” is not having some paperwork and therefore is not legally allowed to own a firearm.
What kind of country do we live in?
Sally Pederson, former Iowa lieutenant governor, Des Moines
Pair of Iowa immigration arrests were brutal
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement detentions of Jorge González Ochoa and Ian Roberts in Iowa reveal the problems with the Trump administration’s immigration policy.
Both men are productive members of their communities, not “the worst of the worst” that our president claims to seek to remove. Their brutal arrests put the public at risk.
Republican leaders from Iowa have parroted the anti-American rhetoric of our president. ICE’s behavior has got to stop.
Philip Carver, Coralville
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: DMPS students need our support. Let’s help. | Letters
Reporting by The Register’s readers / Des Moines Register
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
