Show t e y' T' e '' yv o lnions A4 Sanpete Messenger Sanpete m We commend Manti High School’s principal and the South Sanpete School District students what had occurred thus reducing the potential for exaggerated rumors to spread administration South Sanpete School District for their handling of the recent pipe bomb incident They Superintendent James Petersen said took appropriate actions to assess risk that after learning of the incident and and protect students yet avoided reviewing district policy to see what should be done he found that blowing the incident out of Jackson had already done exactly proportion There has been a little criticism of what the policy required the principal’s response comments Jackson’s dealing with the such as “There’s no need to make perpetrators showed balanced another Columbine out of this” wisdom He saw the necessity of However those comments come in getting across to them that such knows that hindsight after everyone activity is unacceptable but balanced the bomb was a “prank” that with the acknowledgement that Immediately after seeing evidence the prank was stupid not malicious He practiced the adage “Don’t kill a that a bomb had been set off Principal Brenan Jackson dealt fly with a sledgehammer when a flyswatter will do” skillfully with law enforcement officials and the press He recognized that the boys involved were “good kids” and the Principal Brenan Jackson only contacted law enforcement officials discipline he meted out reflected that after he determined that something The students were suspended and more serious than simple vandalism one student was expelled for the rest had occurred of the school year But the school Once the investigation started he offered help to enable the boys to let sheriff’s deputies and ATF officers keep up with studies while they are do their jobs to solve the matter out of school Jackson dealt with both the local Ironically at the time of the and statewide press adeptly After incident the school board was in the registering concerns about process of revising its Safe Schools the incident — he didn’t Policy a policy all districts are want to make the story into a required to have on the books The “Columbine" if it wasn’t one — he board incorporated lessons learned made himself available to reporters from the pipe bomb incident into its and provided complete final draft which it passed Dec 8 information The incident will be looked back Jackson deserves commendation upon as something to laugh about for how he dealt with faculty staff most likely And that’s okay It turned and students as well out to be a prank — albeit not an he didn’t know at the Although entirely harmless one — of teenage time how serious the situation was boyism he took precautions without But no one knew that when the overreacting He alerted his faculty to explosion was first discovered Based the situation and instructed them and on what he knew at various points school staff to survey their classes Jackson’s response was proportionate and school grounds for anything to the facts He neither overreacted nor brushed off the evidence too suspicious teachers to tell 1 5 2004 ti!E QiJSHste Principal district handled bombing well He also instructed Wednesday December Valley Edition Messenger-Gunniso- n LETTERS TO THE EDITOR RULES: submitted with the Sanpete Messenger invites letters to the editor from our readers Letters must be in good taste and we withhold not be published Occasionally author's name hometown and phone number The telephone number the author’s name from publication so long as the author reveals his or her name to the newspaper Letters are limited to to an 500 words We w§ publish a maximum of one letter per person every four weeks We ask that writers limit themselves for letters edit to the space grammar nght issue or aspect of an issue that they have not addressed before We reserve or its staff danty and taste Opinions m the letters to the editor section do not reflect the opinions of the newspaper The Refusal for beer license not a big deal My wife our sentiments Mai Stitt spoke fairly close at the special meeting that some of the good citizens from around the Gunnison Valley attended I had to miss the special meeting because the petition was in Mai’s name and somebody had to cook She said it made no real difference to us whether we were allowed to sell beer or not We know that our regular customers will still be walking through our door whether they prefer milk water or a good chardonnay Since this is the first that you’ve heard from me I would like to make some observations of recent weeks passed I won’t bore anyone with a narration of events as they played out suffice it to say that the China Gate Cafe held a permit to sell alcoholic beverages in the not too distant past and I was not a happy camper when I realized I should have followed my first instincts and not bothered myself with town meeting on the 8th because it was scheduled for noon but I was prepared to attend that evening Hard to tell the reason for such a change Ho hum just Puts me in politics I suppose mind of Mark Twain material more responsibility However I was a little disby the fact that some people would rather have their children and grandchildren watch folks having fun at the beach with Anyway that meeting went ahead and I am told the only person there was the media and “the public” didn’t even attend Oh well! In reality we have far too much on our plate to be saddled with that headache anyway Any business that means anything to us is still ours Merry Christmas and a very prosperous New Year turbed beer all around them than to low them to see people enjoying a beer with their meal in an adult supervised family restaurant By the way I’ve noticed a whole new crop of hard liquor ads springing up on our cable system I also missed the regular Lloyd D Sitt for Mai Thi Stitt and the China Gate Cafe Gunnison GD ffci flforntflfRn 12 acre lots $29900 Limited time offer to receive 12’x25’ storage unit with lot $500 discount if contract signed before Jan 15 2005 Unique design with elegant entrance Covenants to protect home values ” “Heritage with Elegance 400 E 600 N Ephraim Call Kris Jorgensen (435) 851-074- 3 lightly BUY ONE GET ONE FREE Buy two i710 phones for $8999 each and after Motorola mail-iretate one of them is FREE Requires Rebate service agreement per phone at nextelcomrebates form available THE 1710 SleeK Powerful -- Color screen connect - large Speakerphone Wireless Web Access Phone Ready to take action -- In under a second 65k color display directions conferencing Information on the go For all your financing needs call by Motorola V DEOTRONIX NEXTEL 96 North Main (435) 283-055- 5 MORTGAGE BROKERS Richfield SWPETE 0tm ep rnte ? f iin mra cNU psw tn 0 r w fwet wm vtmef iwnf w Messenger com rw - apies aaiii art wr idm unrmnwt fruwii avarwrhwgr u(ki ' nmr Mtrh — tow mowMim ? lMuahm “' u mn mm Osexr r rvi IdMImM VIM n f - nmnvc ui h POOR |