To the Editor:

For every action, there is a reaction. For every reaction, a choice is presented. This letter to the editor is my expressed reaction to the article entitled “Complaints persist about racial slurs at BKW,” written by Marcello Iaia and featured in the Thursday, March 19, 2015 issue of the newspaper.

I am choosing to communicate my displeasure with the content of the aforementioned article.

As witnessed by parents and proven by researchers, children learn to interact with their world by imitating others, specifically those individuals who spend the most time with them. In fact, a study done by J. E. Stice (1987) found that 50 percent of what children see and hear in their immediate environment is retained long term.

This informal education begins well before a child enters the organized school setting. Therefore, a child’s first classroom is the home; a child’s first teacher is a parent. I believe that this is from where and from whom children learn, and subsequently retain, their tendencies toward others.

If children are exposed to racial epithets, then they are more likely to use such slurs. If children are shown that repeatedly raising a middle finger is a way to vent frustration, then they, too, will engage in that vulgar act.

Inappropriate behaviors may be done on school property, but these poor choices are not taught, and certainly not condoned, by the Berne-Knox-Westerlo administration, faculty, staff and the majority of the student body. These acts of aggression are learned outside of our schools by a few, but are brought in to our schools at the detriment of us all.

Nowadays, those individuals who thrive on the negative seek out the press, while those who accomplish noteworthy acts are content to have been involved in a positive experience. The majority of the individuals who comprise the Berne-Knox-Westerlo School District fall into the latter category. Yet, their stories often go unwritten, undocumented, by our local newspaper.

I want to learn more about the young lady who raises awareness, organizes fundraising events, and speaks in front of the New York State Assembly, all on behalf of lymphedema and lymphatic disease. I want to read about the dedicated individual who organizes fundraising activities, such as the collection of the Box Tops for Education, that benefit the elementary school. An article about the students who choose to participate in the Math-A-Thon that benefits St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital would be a welcomed addition to the newspaper.

Acknowledgement by the newspaper of the organizers and members of the BKW Student Council who donated and packaged $1,200 of food items that were distributed to fifteen families in our community this past holiday season would have been interesting to many readers. In the future, I hope that journalists will seek out these persons of quality and sing their praises.

Shame on The Altamont Enterprise, in general, and Marcello Iaia, in specific, for criticizing an entire school district for the actions of a very select few. Shame on the editor for choosing to print the negative while repeatedly overlooking the positive. The article did not educate the public, but rather the article proved to infuriate a community.

However, I take comfort in the belief that the community’s fury is not directed toward the author’s intended target, but instead at the media whose subjects are not thoroughly vetted, but whose biases are clearly seen.

Nicole Egan

Westerlo