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Te ----- ye BAR SEF abn Wy 0° ais bona g FERRE On TR rT 6 - "WEEKEND STAR" FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2000 PUBLISHER................ J. Peter Hvidsten GENERAL MGR.......... Don MacLeod MANAGING EDITOR.. Jeff Mitchell OFFICE MANAGER.... Gayle Stapley Aocna E-MAIL: port.perry.star@sympatico.ca ADVERTISING MGR...Deb McEachern Member Ontario Community REPORTER................. Chris Hall Newspaper Assoc. Freelance Writers- Heather McCras, John B. McClelland, Published every Friday by the Port Perry Star Company Limited, 188 Mary Street - Port Perry, Ontario - L9L 187 PHONE (905) 985-7383 Distributed free in the following communities: Port Perry - Uxbridge - Sunderland - Little Britain - RR Lindsay Janetville FAX (905) 985-3708 Oakwood - Manilla - Seagrave - Greenbank - Brooklin - Ashburn - Columbus - RR Oshawa Caesarea - Blackstock - Raglan - Nestleton - Yelverton - Prince Albert EDITORIAL POLICY: Opinions expressed by columnists, contributors and letter writers are not necessary those of The Port P Star. Letters must be signed and the telephone number (which will not be published) included. Requests that a name be withheld will be honoured only if there is a compelling reason to do so. Errors wil be corrected brought fo the ecto' atenion. Wo reserve the igh to edit of refuse publication of any malarial submitted. ADVERTISING POLICY: The pubisher s no kas or ons connection with any advertisement in any subsequent issue of the refund of any monies paid fo the advertisement. All claims of error in publication must be mada by Wednesday, noon, prior o the next week's publication, and, if not made, wil nol be considered. No dai wil be allowed for more than one iserton changes or typographical errors that do not lessen the value of an advertisement. The publisher is not kable for other errors or omissions in BUSINESS OFFICE: Judy Ashby, Kathy Dudley, Janet Rankin, Lesley West, Heather Callan ADVERTISING: Ginni Todd, Cindy Jobin, Gail Morse, Heather McGregor, Linda Clarke, Janet Archer, Malcolm Lennox, Lisa Monk . PRODUCTION MANAGER: Pamela Hickey Production Staff: Trudy Empringham, Daryle Wright, Arlene Cheel, Richard Drew OPINION Time to get on the ball Just about every incumbent politician and political hopeful seeking office in the election next month recognizes municipal restructuring as likely the most pressing issue for the next gen- eration of councillors. The problem is that almost no one has a real plan on how to address it. Time's a-wasting, and has been for a while now. And the failure of regional politicians to tackle amalgamation, or restruc- turing, or whatever you want to call it, is part of the current council's legacy of which members should not be proud. Maybe regional reps have been cozy with the government bean-counters turning their beady eyes elsewhere, and are hopeful Durham will escape the amalgamation craze. Maybe they don't want to deal with an issue that may mean the loss of political opportunities. Maybe they're afraid. Maybe they don't get it. Atany rate, the issue must go to the top of the agenda after new councillors are sworn in. And politicians in Durham and its municipalities must come up with a plan that meets the govern- ment's criteria of cost reduction and service efficiency, while ensuring the continued existence and autonomy of our commu- nities. More of our tax dollars may flow south to the region, but it's still Scugog, Uxbridge or Brock we recognize as our homes. And if we want to keep it that way, we'd better get on the ball. YRANNOSAURUS SNEAKS UP ON THE PEACEFUL VILLAGE OF UNSUSPECTING HUMANS. -- AS ANACHRONISTIC Jan Twohey of Port Perry submitted this lovely picture, of a tender moment between a mother and child. If you have an interesting picture we could use for Photo of the Week, please drop it by The Star office, or give us a call at 985-7383. MOVE A PoLLY POCKE FROM A PATIENT'S roo! ITS NOTOFTEN I'M REQUIRED TO SURGICALLY RE A 11 7 T rr, Suspensions were inappropriate To the Editor: I had contacted Bobbie Drew and Grant Yeo prior to reading Jeff Mitchell's article in the Weekend Star (Suspensions not for protest, says Drew, Sept. 29). Both indicated that the suspensions had more to do with safety issues than with the student walk out. While I have considerable respect for the dedication that both individuals have shown over these many years, this expla- nation, for me, holds no water at all. I have had six children in four schools in Durham Region over the past 25 years. I have delivered them to school, picked them up, delivered them for dances, games, and a whole variety of other activ- ities during the day and the night. Over all of these years, | have seen little or no concern or effort on the part of teachers or administrators to control children's activities once they had left the school. Children walk on the roads, run out from behind cars waiting to pick up other children, push each other off curbs into oncoming traffic, and act in all cases, like the children they are. We even went so far as to put new sidewalks in Blackstock a number of years ago. The children still walk on the roads. They are not suspend- ed. What | have seen on a consistent basis are arbitrary, punitive, inappropriate acts on the part of too many school adminis- trators to mention. | am not certain just who it was who came up with the idea of suspensions for minute failures of rule observances, but it boggles the imagina- tion that such individuals are running our schools. Perhaps Mrs. Drew might point out just where and when the rules regarding safety while walking on the streets were made up, by whom were they made up, and just when they were communicated to the stu- dents, and give us a list of the times and number of other infractions. Typically, at least in my experience, such rules are made up after the fact and applied retroac- tively. By the way, | wish someone would explain to me the idiotic concept behind suspending students who are excessively absent from class. Yet this is what we get. I believe that the problem here was an inappropriate reaction by a high school principal. Three of the children involved had letters of permission from their par- ents, and their parents accompanied the Please turn to page 15 Haim mm. tess. -- NA a ----------. ro SS a n----------r BE ----.,