To the editor:

I was outraged to read your recent article “ Morse adds drug checks” (news report, March 7) about police raids on local high schools.

Morse High School Principal Peter Kahl called his version a “teaching lockdown.” The Morse raid reportedly turned up no booty.

In some African communities the standard greeting is, “How are your children?” The question obviously has a larger meaning such as: How is your society doing? How do you treat your children? How do you treat the least of these?

I’m afraid by these standards that we are not doing very well.

Schools are supposed to teach critical thinking, citizenship, confidence, imagination and community building spirit. Morse Warden Kahl proposes that the next scenario will have the students exit the classrooms and line up against the wall. Nice touch.

New RSU 1 Superintendent Patrick Manuel added his wisdom to The Times Record piece. He said, “The point here is not to catch people. The point is to send a message. This is another deterrent.”

One might call it preemption. Like in Afghanistan or Pakistan. A preemptive raid. Our schools have become domestic war zones.

So instead of creating energetic, bright and inquiring minds at our local schools, the goal now seems to be to turn them into prison yards that produce fearful, compliant, servile, submissive individuals who stand fixed at attention in hallways while sniffing dogs and police scour the school for drugs that the overseers don’t expect to find.

But relax because this is all just a drill. I’d call it the breeding grounds for a police state. The canary just died in the mine.

How are your children? Who really cares to hear the answer to the question? Leave it to the prison warden to sort out.

Bruce K. Gagnon,
Bath

letters@timesrecord.com