Pubdate: Wed, 01 Nov 2006 Source: Maple Ridge News (CN BC) Copyright: 2006 Maple Ridge News Contact: http://www.mapleridgenews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1328 Author: Mark O'Neill TRUSTEE SHOULD DO HIS HOMEWORK Editor, The News: Re: Meth Task Force Treatment Unfortunate (The News, Oct. 28). Whatever would motivate school trustee Stephen Vdovine to become a patsy for the Mary and Gordy Robson bumbling road show against crystal meth? I think I'll rest my case on him being too young, highly impressionable and extremely naive. The only pandemic in our community, province and nation is political chumps like Vdovine using the press to spew hyperbole every chance they get. There is no fight going on between the school district and the Robsons. It is simply a case of the latter making false and, by association, idiotic allegations about high school students using crystal meth, and the former merely calling them on it. I would expect nothing less from any politician. Our rookie trustee, with all the maudlin pontification he can muster, is merely continuing his own little war against school board chair Cheryl Ashlie. If he really knew the facts about substance use, abuse, and addiction in any community, he'd put his hot air gun away and get on board with the school district's fundamentally useful focus -- that abuse of any substance is a threat to our overall social fabric. School trustees should be doing their homework, not engaging in poorly contrived lectures that do nothing to best serve the needs of students. Mark O'Neill Maple Ridge - --- MAP posted-by: Elaine