SpeakOut 10/7

Call 471-6636

I have been following our Sikeston girls softball team in the paper. I see where they are doing pretty good this year. I understand that they have a lot of young talent coming up for the next few years. I know they have a lot of freshmen on the team who are seeing a lot of varsity time plus their jayvee. My question is this. The other day at the pep assembly they announced all the softball players, including two who weren't from the team but failed to mention any of the freshmen girls. I realize they are not in the high school building, but let's give these girls some recognition. They do play on the high school team. In case there may be some people who don't know who they are, congratulations girls for a job well done: Allison Blurton, Molly Brinkmeyer, Hailey Davis, Paige Silverthorn, Erin Wibbenmeyer and Beth Ziegenhorn. Thank you.

I think it was a dishonor to show just three of the Football Friday Nighters' mothers in your paper. I think you should have shown a picture of all the mothers. One mother is just as important as the other. It's a shame that you just picked three of these boys and their mothers.

I noticed they want the cops to start giving people tickets who are caught driving around while talking on a cell phone. Seventy-five percent of the cops have cell phones stuck in their ears. Who's going to give them a ticket? I guess we'll get them on a citizen's arrest.

I am a concerned grandparent. I know a friend whose granddaughter goes to school in Sikeston. I believe she is in the Middle School. The grandmother has been sending the money for her lunches and then the granddaughter comes home from school and says she's starving. The granddaughter hasn't been eating lunch at school. She's been eating a peanut butter sandwich in the office daily because the prior year, her mother who then had custody, borrowed the school money for lunches. No one informed anyone of this and the child has been eating peanut butter sandwiches all year in the office, away from the other children. This is disgraceful. It is disgraceful for Sikeston Public Schools. My grandchildren do not attend school in Sikeston and I am thrilled about it. It's an outrage that the school has been making her eat peanut butter sandwiches in the office and keeping her money to pay for the prior bill. I know this for a fact because the grandmother went to the school and talked to the principal. Something needs to be done.

I live in Sikeston and I'm calling about a field that has been burning all around our area. I realize our farmers are growing food and we have to have it but there has to be some other way than burning fields. When I was in town by Wallpapers for Less, I saw the fire and we thought Mini Farms was on fire. People suffering with sinuses and allergies are winding up in the hospital and the doctors' offices are full because of it. Surely, surely something else can be done other than these farmers burning these fields every year when the ozone is in the terrible condition that it is. They need to find something else that can be done other than burning all these fields.

The Sikeston High School students have not demonstrated very good results with the MAP Test. A few weeks ago there was a long article about the MAP Test and the student results. On Sept. 23, there was a very long Your View that explained how the curriculum was aligned with the test and how the curriculum had been aligned with the previous tests. Let me summarize the long article and the long Your View in a simple statement. For years, Sikeston has been teaching the test. Still, the students don't do well on the test. Why aren't we teaching the students instead of teaching the test?