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6- The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday June 25, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com OPINION & LETTERS The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 845-3824, ext. 224 Circulation: 845-9742 Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: The Oakville Beaver is a division of IAN OLIVER Group Publisher Media Group Ltd. NEIL OLIVER Publisher DAVID HARVEY General Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director SANDY PARE Business Manager MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution ALEXANDRIA ANCHOR Circ. Manager Have a safe prom night It's the end of another school year and excited children and thankful teens will be looking ahead to a summer filled with fun. However, as a cautionary note to parents, make sure you know where your teen is headed when they leave the house for an end-of-year party. If necessary, give that all-important lecture to your son or daughter about the need to play safe when attending a grad or prom party. All too often, great parties are marred by great tragedy. Someone drank too much and got behind the wheel of a car. Someone got angry and a fight ensued. Someone decided it would be humorous to trash a house. Someone doesn't make it home alive. Halton Regional Police are taking part in a province-wide Safe Prom Campaign that focuses on drivers and their passengers getting home safely after celebrating. Throughout this week, Halton will have officers running RIDE spotchecks across the region. Don't think for one minute that you can `dodge' the police by taking backroads. Spotchecks will be located in both rural and high-traffic areas. Halton schools have been notified in advance of the campaign and police are hoping that getting the message out will provide the greatest amount of deterrence. Parents or guardians might want to ask their teen who the designated driver is for the group and make sure their child has enough money for a cab ride home-- if not, get them to call you, no matter the time of night. Halton police are also reminding everyone that impaired driving is a crime in progress. Use your cell phone to call 911 if you know or suspect a driver is impaired. By doing so you might be saving a life. Graduation and prom parties are all about celebrating the past, present and future. They should not be marred by preventable tragedies. The Oakville Beaver welcomes letters from its readers. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, legal considerations and grammar. In order to be published all letters must contain the name, address and phone number of the author. Letters should be addressed to The Editor, Oakville Beaver, 467 Speers Rd., Oakville, ON, L6K 3S4, or via e-mail to editor@oakvillebeaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish a letter. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR I read the same article as letter writer A.C. Dunbar (Parents have right to speak up, Oakville Beaver, June 20) and respectfully disagree with the assertion that Halton District School Board Director Wayne Joudrie believes parents have no right to speak up. I would suggest that perhaps it is the manner in which these parents expressed their disagreement that was Mr. Joudrie's concern. It is somewhat hypocritical on one hand to suggest that parents have the Parents actions warranted comment from director right to wage a public campaign, but Mr. Joudrie should be denied equal right to address his concerns. The reality is, school closures and reallocations of student populations have been a reality in various parts of Oakville for several years now. Dare I suggest east Oakville is not impervious to these changes? I would challenge each and every parent who is outraged at the thought that their children might have to attend a school outside of their immediate neighbourhood to refer to the articles on page 3 (ABI could strike anyone, not all can afford it) and page 22 (Max is their inspiration) of the June 20 edition of The Oakville Beaver. These stories detail the challenges and heartbreak little Selena Solis and baby Max Vallender, and their families have endured. Why not match the amount of funds spent fighting the school board and direct it to these two very worthwhile causes? L.STEWART BY STEVE NEASE snease@haltonsearch.com Opposition to school closures is natural reaction by parents I am surprised that Halton District School Board (HDSB) Director Wayne Joudrie was shocked at the groundswell of grassroots opposition to school closures in southeast Oakville. Just what did he expect after putting the report out? What I find problematic is his implying the concerned parents were on the same level of unruly students. The stakeholders in question are well within their rights to make their opinions known and if Mr. Joudrie does not like what he is hearing and can't deal with it, he is in the wrong job. While I am not a parent myself, I found following this whole issue over the past few months, the HDSB has been less than transparent with the issue of school capacity in southeast Oakville. If there is excess classroom capacity in southeast Oakville, then the HDSB should have been up front with the situation with the parents in plain language that the board can't run schools at less than minimum capacity. I have read the reports and they are not laid out in plain language. Running a school board on tight budgets is never easy however talking down to stakeholders because they don't agree with what you are saying is not the smart thing to do. In other fields this sort of mindset tends to end careers. WILLIAM SMITH The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone 416-340-1981.Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate.The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline. Pud