January 30, 2013
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing this letter in response to an article written by Pat Adams that was the cover story of the Forum Newspaper on January 24, 2013. The article was about the safety of PS/MS 146 in Howard Beach. Let me be very clear by stating that I am very upset and angered by this article, and I feel that Pat Adams is targeting PS/MS 146 for no reason other than to gain notoriety and create sensationalism for herself and her local newspaper.
Our school’s principal, James McKeon has always done his best to ensure the safety of all the students and staff in the building at all times. He has been working on our current safety issues for weeks now. His concerns did not just come about due to her article, as I believe she wants to think. He has always had the children’s best interest at heart.
Our PTA have been in touch with our local politicians and together with our school we are working to resolve this issue. Pat Adams did no more than unnecessarily thrust our school into the spotlight for her own personal gain.
Sincerely,
Axxxxxx Bxxxxxx
———————————————————————————————————————————————
According to one of the individuals I spoke to who that had received a copy of the above letter, it was composed and distributed to parents at the school by email, texting, Facebook and Twitter.
Allegedly they were urged to “sign” the letter and send it off to The Queens Chronicle, The Tribune and The Courier by e-mail as a letter to the editor.
I have thought about addressing this letter every second since I first saw it. Some of my thoughts were not exactly suitable for print and that of course is a side we can all identify with—it appears in every situation where there is anger or danger or someone is wrongfully accused, upset or insulted.
No matter what the case may be, it is never easy to hear unpleasant things said of you, but for someone whose life is more in print than anywhere else, it was especially hard for me to see such things written.
But the nature of my job and what I have seen, done and heard about for the last two decades has, as a natural consequence, prepared me to expect the worst and be grateful for anything less than that.
I love my job. I mean I absolutely love my job. It is a job where you are learning every minute. It can be and is exciting, joyful, saddening, blessed, disheartening, rewarding, disappointing, maddening and inspirational. Sometimes all at once.
But it is a job with a great number of opportunities and those are as diverse as their origins. Some of them, like the words unfit for print I mentioned before, are not opportunities that, while remain readily available, should never be taken.
For instance the opportunity to mislead or to manipulate. To make a mountain out of a molehill or to dwarf a giant accomplishment. To engage in the aggravation of turmoil through careless speculation. To publish, without intense scrutiny and absolute proof, the facts that affect the lives of so many, so deeply.
I don’t subscribe to any of those opportunities in publishing The Forum. The only opportunities I look toward and I follow are those that help serve my readership.
I have come to learn and to expect that of issues of great consequence, especially those involving children will always bring about opposite opinions and often heated debate, just as this one has.
As angry and disturbing as this public dialogue is that we are currently engaged in is, there is a matter of far greater consequence before us. Bantering back and forth with slanderous form letters is not going to stop an intruder from entering MS 146 or any other public school with it’s doors unlocked. About that there can be no disagreement.
The most important thing that you be aware of with regard to the posture of The Forum on this issue is that we will continue with whatever measures are necessary to cast enough light and do enough digging, to raise enough eyebrows to get something done.
If I were to ask any parent who signed off on that letter what they thought of another of the city’s dangerous bureaucratic policies, I wonder what their reaction would be? For instance in the majority of cases, you can’t get a stop sign or a traffic signal at an intersection proven to be dangerous until there’s a death at the site. Does that strike you as a reasonable solution if your child plays on that corner?
Is that what we should wait for? For someone to come into any of our schools and take the life of a child or anyone else in the building? What an unspeakably horrible thought.
And so if this is what you ask me to step away from. If this is what you brand me as being a sensationalist for and if this is what stops you from reading The Forum, then so be it. I much prefer to be an outcast among the MS 146 school community than to cover a funeral there.
Today on behalf of my newspaper and on behalf of the parents, teachers, principals, religious and civic leaders, police officials and media colleagues who have all urged me to continue on the path I began I will tell you that The Forum remains committed to this issue until it changes. Not in months. But now.
So if that is a demonstration of sensationalism or personal gain, I suppose I should look for another way to get famous and to pay my mortgage.
–Patricia Adams, Publisher
