By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Community Forum: School nurses are no luxury, deserve funding
Placeholder Image
Letters policy
Send e-mail to letters@gainesvilletimes.com (no attached files, please, which can contain viruses); fax to 770-532-0457; or mail to The Times, P.O. Box 838, Gainesville, GA 30503. Include full name, hometown and phone number for confirmation. They should be limited to one topic on issues of public interest and may be edited for content and length. Letters forwarded from other sources or those involving personal or business disputes, poetry, expressions of faith or memorial tributes may be rejected. You may be limited to one letter per month, two on a single topic. Submitted items may be published in print, electronic or other forms. Letters, columns and cartoons express the opinions of the authors and not of The Times editorial board.

It is with great concern for the students of Georgia that I express my thoughts regarding the possible elimination of funding for school nurses. You may recall a time when school nurses were not as critical. However, by law, the public schools today are required to serve all students, including those who are medically fragile.

It is critical to provide for the necessary health care of these students by a licensed health care professional while under the school's supervision, just as it is vital to have classroom instruction provided by a certified educator.

Our student population, approximately 1,400, includes many students with medical concerns who need the care of our nurses daily. The recommended ratio of students to nurses is one nurse per 700 students. We are currently serving twice the recommended number of students.

The school nurses provide care for insulin-dependent diabetics, asthmatics, seizure disorders, allergic reactions and students who present with earaches, fever, vomiting and other ailments. In addition, the school nurse is responsible to evaluate and treat injuries, administer daily medication and provide vision and hearing screenings.

My question is this. Who will attend to these students if funding for the school nurses of Georgia is cut from the budget? Will a teacher, who is well educated for classroom instruction or a secretary who does a fine job of her secretarial duties, be expected to treat medical issues of this magnitude? I'm not talking about "passing out band-aids." I'm talking about life-threatening events that cannot be recognized and treated by an untrained person, however well-intentioned that individual is.

In addition to lacking the medical expertise to properly evaluate and treat students, teachers and other staff already have a full workload. Should we require them to manage the health concerns of the students as well? This will take away valuable classroom time and is hardly fair to the students or the staff.

On a typical day, I personally see 40-50 students. This is very time-consuming and there is a great deal of record keeping that goes along with seeing that many students each day. I challenge anyone who thinks this is a job that "anyone can do" to spend a day with one of our Georgia school nurses. I think they will be shocked to learn what is involved in running a health clinic devoted to serving the medical needs of the student population.

I sincerely hope it does not take a tragedy for our state officials to recognize what we already know. Our nurses are indispensable. They are not a luxury.

Lynn Mutchler, R.N.
Gainesville Middle School

‘Activist' president is leading nationalization
We're being taken over by the radicals. Washington is playing us and dividing this country using lies, hate speech and out of control spending to cover their incompetence.

President Barack Obama and his administration are still acting as community activists and orchestrating groups sponsored by ACORN to become mobs, with the tricky slogans of "Money for the needy, not the greedy." And that was a clean one.

They send little old ladies out to deliver letters to the homes of AIG execs with a horde of cameramen for TV coverage, so the news anchors can rail about the injustice, which doesn't really exist. Whether these folks got bonuses owed them, it won't change someone else's life.

These bussed-in, paid players or brainwashed followers are being used by Obama and his cronies as cover for his pork-filled budget and the colossal mistakes they've made with the financial sector. They knew these bonuses where in the works and that they're legal, this is a disgusting power grab and most of you are buying this crap.

The mobs should be directing their contempt toward Congress and the president, where the rightful blame belongs. Our economy's fundamentals are sound, but having the Dems use and abuse it is making us, and most importantly our children and their children, left to pay for their folly into nationalizing America.

If they had left this alone and let the businesses go into bankruptcy and restructuring or buyouts, this mess could have been diverted. But that would not play well with their plan to nationalize businesses and own us.

AIG employees have a legal contract to receive these retention bonuses, and they are vital to retain and stimulate income. If you can't understand this, go back to school and get an education so you to can make something out of yourself. Instead, you want to scam money out of hard-working, taxpaying Americans who made the right decisions and took the sacrifices to succeed.

It amazes me when you have these people on TV showing their contempt toward people who work for a living. It's all bogus wealth envy, stirred up by the liberal politicians, and it is disgusting.

Obama could defuse this, but he won't because it would destroy his drive to bankrupt America into nationalization. If and when that happens, then where will this wealth-envy crowd go for jobs? There will be riots and bread lines; just look at Russia in the 1950s and '60s to see what we'll be like.

That is something I and my grandchildren don't want to see. It's time for the moderates and conservatives to join forces and protect our Constitution and kick the left out of Washington.

Obama voters who didn't know or understand where this man was coming from or what form of change he was meaning to deliver, look no further than what he was doing out of college. He was a community activist leader, and now he's doing it on a federal level. God help us.

Jane Browder
Gainesville

Recent letter wrote of a truth we need to hear
In reference to the letter, "Roe V. Wade has led to dehumanizing choices," that appeared March 18, thanks to my good friend, Jimmy Echols, for taking the time to write something so important.

Hopefully, those who love to misrepresent the real truth about slavery will refrain from spreading untruths that only stir up strife among black and white people. Satan is the head of those groups of people who knowingly tell untruths.

I remember a well-known pastor some time ago saying almost what Mr. Echols said. I agree with the writer and I will go far enough to say that black people here in America seem to be able to do much better than many of our homelands.

Don't take my word for it. Ask them and see for yourself. I know that there were bad people here in those days, the same as there are now among all races. But I am thankful that there are enough good to uphold the law, which is better for all people. It's not perfect, but from what I hear, it's better than many others.

I learned many years ago that the truth will stand. Many have misrepresented the truth for material gain or for money, but in the end the truth will come out. There are people whom God uses to do certain things for his purpose.

It is somewhat like seeds that are carried by the wind and they fall all over. Some fall on good ground and they multiply and sprout out in other places because of the wind that carries them to other places. God has people who do the same. Newspapers, for example, do the same. God uses them to do his work, also.

People know who will use good things for bad purposes if they will keep up with the news. Many quick-made millionaires have come to the light through sources that we have at our disposal.

Those means aren't to be taken lightly. They are for a good reason. Use them for good for all people.

Jesse Jenkins
Gainesville