Schools must stay the course in meeting the needs of each and every student

by Melissa Hale-Spencer

These are the times when individual states can make a difference in protecting their residents from the dismantling of our rights. So can individual municipalities and individual school districts.

Title IX guidance should be followed to prevent sexual misconduct in schools

One of the most important tools for student safety is communication. Dangers can’t be locked out of schools — no matter how many security cameras or safety vestibules or locks are installed — if the problem is within.

Each of the steps in the Title IX guidance involves communication: clear written policies, discussion of difficult issues; training of not just staff but students and parents; reporting clearly any incidents; communicating well with law-enforcement and child-welfare agencies; and responding to the community and media as well as to students, parents, and staff.

We musn’t bury our heads in the sludge: PFAS should be banned, and biosolids should be filtered

Even if our state did work to protect our farmland, as in Maine and Vermont, we New Yorkers are still drinking milk from other states and eating produce from other states. Cows that graze on land fertilized with biosolids, for example, can have PFAS in their milk. So what is needed is federal regulation.

Denying science will not solve our problems. Fires will rage, droughts will kill, hurricanes will become more frequent and fierce if we deny scientific facts as a hoax.

Misrepresentation flows easily while truth takes effort to discern

“If a person cannot walk into the middle of the town square and express his or her views without fear of arrest, imprisonment, or physical harm,” Natan Sharansky wrote, “then that person is living in a fear society, not a free society.”

These are the times when holding to the worth of others is imperative

“We can say ‘retard’ and ‘pussy’ without the fear of getting cancelled,” the banker said. “It’s a new dawn.” We see it rather as dusk — and darkness will prevail if not just our schools, where students learn lifelong values, but each of us as a human being does not make an effort to see and respect our differences while acknowledging our common humanity.

Discipline should not mean disconnection for students

A school should be a place where a child can make a mistake, be corrected, take responsibility for that mistake, learn from it, and carry on with his life. The health and safety not just of individual students but of our society as a whole depends on it.

An inclusive playground lets kids of all abilities play together

We commend the Guilderland school district for being aware of and trying to meet the needs of all of the children it serves and we encourage families to use those five playgrounds when school is not in session. But we urge the town to create an inclusive playground, perhaps at the centrally located Tawasentha Park, that would serve as a magnet for children of all abilities to play together.

From the editor: Elisabeth Vines delights while she enlightens

by Melissa Hale-Spencer

January is named for Janus, the ancient Roman god of transitions. He is frequently portrayed as having two faces — one looking back and the other looking forward.