An 'arrogant and insensitive act'

Like many other citizens of Warwick, I read with a mixture of sadness, disappointment, and disbelief of the decision by Warwick Valley Central School District to cancel the traditional home coming parade this year for the extremely vague and unsubstantiated reason of an anti-bullying effort.

Really?
Many school district personnel, town citizens, merchants and alumni I spoke with just couldn’t make the connection either.

Many felt the only bullying taking place was by the school district’s administration.

This was clearly a monetary decision rather than one made for the good of the community and students.

Further, the article in The Warwick Advertiser failed to make even a remote connection between the parade cancelling and bullying.

If the High School administration had simply made the parade theme an anti-bullying effort, allowing each class to construct their floats with this theme in mind, that would have been a supportable effort.

As it turns out, the only certain outcome of cancelling the parade was the few dollars the district saved by not paying teacher chaperones of students in the bus garage.

Those meager savings, however, cost the students, families, town’s people and alumni so much more.

So, shame on the WVCSD administrators and BOE member who had any hand in this arrogant and insensitive act.

Chuck Odom
WVCSD 2001-2010