To the editor:

In a recent letter to the editor David Bates accuses Steven Boyajian of a "lack of leadership."

Steve attended Barrington schools all of his life and was president of his class for three years at Barrington High School. In the last half of his senior year, after graduating early, he went to Costa Rica for several months to help build handicap access trails in a Cloud Forest Reserve and then returned to speak as president at his class's commencement.

He graduated from Pomona College and then graduated from Boston College Law School with honors. He is a member of the Rhode Island Bar Association House of Delegates and lectures for it annually in his areas of expertise, is a member of the Rhode Island Bar Foundation and its scholarly awards committee, is a member of the Providence Foundation and serves in its audit committee and is a member of the board of Day One, which is the state's leading organization committed to reducing, and helping the victims of sexual abuse and violence. He has testified at the statehouse on consumer issues and coaches his son's baseball team in his spare time. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, as a lawyer he represents, without charge, elderly poor people who are in financial difficulty in our state. 

Mr. Bates, whatever else you may say about Steve Boyajian, we have known him all of his life and please believe us, he understands and knows about leadership.

John and Elaine Boyajian

Barrington