To the editor:

I was struck by the article by one of your writers called “Resident walks down County Road in protest" in this week's Barrington Times. The writer clearly missed an opportunity to explore an actual story of substance and instead focused on superfluous details that added no value whatsoever in advancing the story. Clearly this mother is feeling helpless and stressed by a school system that she doesn’t believe is meeting the needs of her son and as the article states “[is] discriminating against her son who has hearing issues.”

This mom must be feeling pretty overwhelmed to risk her safety by walking down the center of County Road between two lanes of traffic to protest. Did the writer attempt to interview her and school officials to learn more about her story? According to the writer, “She stated that school is also with holding [sic] assistive technology that her son could use in class and at home.” I’m sure the writer meant withholding assistive technology. Why does a child with a hearing impairment not have the accommodations he needs to be successful? Why did this writer not dig in and corroborate or refute her claim of discrimination? What is or can the school system do to resolve this child’s issue?

Instead of answering these questions, the writer focused on painting an image of a boom-box toting woman wearing a polka dot dress carrying signs and talking on her phone while making a social media post. I’m not sure what the point was of stating that "Melisaratos was wearing a polka dotted dress..." in the second paragraph. We can clearly see in the picture that she is wearing a dress, and is it really relevant to the story that she is wearing a dress, let alone a polka dotted one?  Does anyone actually care about this useless detail? I certainly don’t. What I do care about is the fact that this mom and her child don’t feel like they have what they need for the child to be successful in school. I feel for her. She deserves our support and compassion. Anyone who has ever advocated for a child in a school or health care system knows how incredibly stressful and isolating it can be. 

Furthermore, if a father were protesting for the same reason, would this writer make a point to describe that he was wearing a polka dotted button-down shirt or a polka dotted tie? What she is wearing while advocating for her child's needs at school adds zero value to this article. What would actually add value is an article about the perceived unmet needs for this child and what our school system is doing about it. 

Regards,

Anne Claussen

Barrington