Open Forum

A teacher of emotionally disturbed students who is fighting disciplinary action taken against him by the school board has filed a grievance, saying he did not receive due process. On July 25, the board voted to withhold a pay raise for Hawthorne Park School teacher Paul Bracy, a 14-year veteran of the district. Although the board did not identify the teacher, citing personnel policy, Bracy said he had been the object of the board's discipline. The Willingboro Education Association filed the grievance this month with the superintendent of schools, Geraldyn Foster.

Author-activist Gloria Steinem arrives in Center City to speak to the Forum of Executive Women. Steinem conducted an open forum yesterday with the group, which promotes greater leadership roles for women.

The Colonial school board members will hear a solicitor's report next month on whether they should change the district's policy to allow two students to form a Bible study group at Plymouth-Whitemarsh High School. Solicitor Francis O'Hara said after the school board meeting Thursday night that case law seemed to indicate that the district was not obligated to allow the students, Alison Fiore and Susan Johnson, to create the group. The federal Equal Access Act of 1984 and court cases have said that if a district allowed non-curriculum-related groups to be formed the district had created an "open forum" and could not limit the free speech of students.

The American Friends Service Committee could not be better situated to help support the Occupy Philadelphia movement. Spiritually and philosophically, the Quaker organization devoted to peace and social justice feels a natural solidarity with the hundreds of protesters camping out at City Hall. Which is nice. But it is on a more fundamental level - way down at the foundation of Maslow's hierarchy of needs - that the committee has reached out to the high-minded masses.

The Haverford commissioners approved a change Monday night that will cut in half the number of full board meetings each month, despite protests from residents that the move was an effort to muzzle public opinion. The change, approved, 6-3, with all three Democrats voting against it, was proposed by Township Manager Thomas J. Bannar as a way of promoting better discussion of issues and cutting costs. But in eliminating one of the commissioners' monthly work sessions, the move will also eradicate one of the two monthly public forums in which residents can address the board on township issues.

Local legislators have invited the community to a meeting on school safety and security issues tonight in Monroe Township. The meeting, sponsored by Fourth District Sen. Fred Madden and Assemblymen Bob Smith and David Mayer, will be held at 7 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center in Williamstown High School, 700 N. Tuckahoe Road. State and local law enforcement and emergency planning officials will speak to residents about security issues and answer questions. State Attorney General Peter C. Harvey and Sidney Casperson, director of the state's counterterrorism office, are scheduled to attend.

Ending welfare as we know it is turning out to be easier said than done. Many on welfare lack the basic education, training, day care or transportation needed to find a job. At the same time, the number of welfare recipients is far higher than the number of jobs available. With that backdrop, community leaders planned an open forum for today to discuss hurdles - including jobs, education and day care - facing welfare reform. The free forum is open to the public and scheduled from 10 a.m. to noon in the Bonnell Auditorium at the Community College of Philadelphia.

No one on the North Penn school board seems to know why $83,000 was transferred from other budget accounts to pay for the high school's electric bill this past year, except to say that the fund was underbudgeted. As board members discussed the transfer at their meeting Thursday, residents openly grumbled about it. To the dismay of Board President Patricia Q. Davis, George P. Starkey, director of business affairs, could not say why the transfer was made. "This is a huge figure," Davis said sternly.

Last week it was Pepper Johnson. This week it's another linebacker, defensive captain Carl Banks, who is taking coach Ray Handley to task. Banks yesterday said Handley has isolated himself from the players during his two-year tenure. When Bill Parcells was coach, he had a veteran like Harry Carson act as an intermediary between the players and coaches. The theory was a player could sometimes tell another the facts of football better than a coach. Banks, the defensive captain, said Handley has refused to follow the same strategy and that in some ways has created a divisiveness between the players and coaches.

The PIAA Board of Control has been under fire during the past year to reform the body that it is charged with governing. That is why Carlisle High School athletic director Dave Eavenson and his ad-hoc committee are coming to the area today to discuss reclassification and redistricting for football. Eavenson, a member of the PIAA board who also is president of the state's athletic directors' association, said the 3:30 p.m. meeting at Plymouth-Whitemarsh High School in Plymouth Meeting will be an open forum for member schools to discuss change.

I WAS LAID OFF in February when my job - and those of 650 of my co-workers - was shipped overseas by a pharmaceutical company making record profits (the economic downturn never had a negative financial effect on them). I have spent months looking for a new job, but with so many people out of work, it is nearly impossible to find anything. When Sen. Pat Toomey finally held three "open forums" to hear from constituents, he held them in Elk, Potter and Carbon counties - three areas that are suffering from unemployment problems, but the three combined do not have the same unemployment rate as Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Lehigh Valley or Harrisburg alone.

The American Friends Service Committee could not be better situated to help support the Occupy Philadelphia movement. Spiritually and philosophically, the Quaker organization devoted to peace and social justice feels a natural solidarity with the hundreds of protesters camping out at City Hall. Which is nice. But it is on a more fundamental level - way down at the foundation of Maslow's hierarchy of needs - that the committee has reached out to the high-minded masses.

Neutral 'net' crucial In a July 14 commentary, "Regulating broadband would stifle development," David L. Cohen, executive vice president of Comcast Corp., a broadband provider that would profit greatly from a defeat of net neutrality legislation, presents a very deceptive view of the issues. Cohen's hypocrisy is offensive. He whines about Microsoft demanding special protection from competition while insisting broadband providers will simply wither away without special protection from an open network.

Local legislators have invited the community to a meeting on school safety and security issues tonight in Monroe Township. The meeting, sponsored by Fourth District Sen. Fred Madden and Assemblymen Bob Smith and David Mayer, will be held at 7 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center in Williamstown High School, 700 N. Tuckahoe Road. State and local law enforcement and emergency planning officials will speak to residents about security issues and answer questions. State Attorney General Peter C. Harvey and Sidney Casperson, director of the state's counterterrorism office, are scheduled to attend.

Thank you for endorsing John Kerry for President. Just reading the shamelessly shrill rants of the right wing responses made it worth it. Though it is hard to believe that some believe that Catholic John Kerry is anti-Catholic because he disagrees with the church on outlawing abortion in all cases. Non-Catholic George Bush and a so-called devoted Catholic Rick Santorum both disagree with the Catholic Church's stance on the death penalty, not to mention the Iraqi War or aid to the poor.

Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland was arrested for investigation of drug possession in Burbank, Calif., and released on $10,000 bail Sunday after he was stopped for driving without his lights on. Police didn't say what kinds of drugs Weiland was suspected of having, but he has had several run-ins with the law in recent years. He was arrested in the mid-'90s for investigation of cocaine and heroin possession. Did time in jail in 1999 for repeatedly violating probation and failing to complete drug rehab.

Novelist Joyce Carol Oates was the first speaker in this year's Five Star Forum sponsored by the Cheltenham Township Adult School. Season tickets are on sale for the rest of the lineup, which will include physician and researcher Thomas Perls, who has studied aging (Oct. 15); diplomat and former ambassador Dennis Ross, who has been involved in U.S. foreign relations for 20 years (Nov. 19); television and radio science spokesman Derick Pitts, who has worked with the Franklin Institute Science Museum and hosted weekly astronomy radio programs (March 18)

When I arrived in Center City at 10:20 on the morning of Sept. 11, filled with fear and fury, wondering what was next, I also pondered the reaction of the media, and how critical that would be in the hours and days to follow. "Fright news," that artificially compelling state of the art journalism that's practiced by some TV stations and newspapers, was my greatest fear. But this time, with the most savage attack yet on American soil, the captains of catastrophic news decided to lay down their pens and close up shop for a few days.

Less then a week after the Burlington County Democratic Committee endorsed former Gov. Jim Florio for the U.S. Senate, chairman Gary Karr said yesterday that he would not seek reelection to the county's top Democratic job. Karr, who has led the bickering 440-member organization for three years, said he would support Lou Gallagher, a longtime committee member and Bordentown lawyer, as his successor. Karr said he was leaving because he wanted to spend more time with his family and focus on his new job as a marketing representative for the Tarquini Organization, an architectural firm in Camden.

They would have been spectacular stadiums, built with one of the best public-private deals ever negotiated between professional sports teams and a city. Too bad. Philadelphia's two-team stadium deal apparently will not happen, certainly not before tomorrow's City Council deadline, and never if you believe the Eagles. Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie and executive vice president Joseph Banner yesterday threw a last-ditch "Hail Mary" to save their stadium project. But the intended receiver, Council President Anna Verna, refused to make herself available downfield, let alone catch the ball.