LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Let parents decide about schools

Posted

To the editor:

(re: “People agree with me on schools,” Oct. 8)

I was going to let Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz’s nonsensical, non-sequitur rebuttal highlighting how he once again is not listening to the voices of his constituency go without any further back-and-forth. But the irony of his reply being printed in the same edition as two stories that further support my position proved too much a case of poetic justice to allow the opportunity to slip by.

All one had to do was turn the page from Dinowitz’s half-hearted attempt to twist my words to see a story written by Rose Brennan (re: “Forget COVID-19, youngsters need five days in classroom,” Oct. 8). Perhaps Dinowitz finds it easy to refute my one letter to the editor imploring him to give parents more of a choice in their children’s education — he should find it a lot harder to continue his charade now that we see a groundswell among parents passing around online petitions demanding exactly what my original letter suggested.

The story mentions Gemma James and Virginia Avetisian as two P.S. 24 mothers of the nearly 50 parents so far who have signed the petition — and that’s just at one school — because they consider the potential risk of sending their kids onsite to be vastly outweighed by the certain educational and economic devastation that will occur by requiring remote learning for everyone.

And if Dinowitz digs into his bag of politician double-speak and lambasts these mothers as he did me — who are only asking for the right to decide what is best for their children — is he then going to be so audacious as to dismiss the hard data?

That 74 percent of New York City families chose to participate in the blended learning plan where their kids attend school on select days?

Who is not facing the facts now, Assemblyman?

The second relevant — and cover — story in that week’s edition of The Riverdale Press (re: “Escaping the shadows of larger-than-life leaders,” Oct. 8) was about the Dinowitz and Biaggi dynasties. While that story mostly discussed the next generation of those dynasties, when you look at the disturbing trends in Assemblyman Dinowitz’s words and deeds over the past few years, you see a picture of someone who has been in office too long. Who takes his election wins as pre-ordained facts instead of staying close to his constituents’ needs.

And who prefers to misuse obvious truisms to further ram his “my way or the highway” approach to governing down our throats.

Yes, Assemblyman, we all agree that the virus is a risk to both children and adults, but that doesn’t address the point that I and 74 percent of New York City parents are making.

No one is debating that this virus is real and can risk a person’s health, regardless of age. But we all need the right to navigate those risks in a way that works for our individual situations while respecting the rights of others.

And if our current Assemblyman prefers to legislate away those rights and rule by decree, then we need a new Assemblyman.

David Epstein

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David Epstein,

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