Lincoln-Sudbury's Ritchie gets strong support
LINCOLN/SUDBURY
A group of parents of Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School students stood behind John M. Ritchie, superintendent-principal of the school, in a letter to the editor recently.
Globe West reported March 18 that some parents were voicing concerns that school officials had been slow to make changes to improve safety after the Jan. 19 slaying of a student at the school.
The 188 parents who signed the letter said there was another side to the story that the Globe hadn't explored.
The letter reads:
We, the undersigned members of the Lincoln Sudbury community, find it unacceptable that The Boston Globe printed the article "Parents Seek Action On Safety Measures" on March 18 based on a letter sent to the school board by a mere eight parents.
We respect the right of every parent to express his or her opinion, but we believe the tenor of any journalistic article should be balanced by the facts. Lincoln Sudbury has over 1,600 students and likely over 3,000 parents. As such, the letter represents a mere fraction of the parent community, certainly well below one percent.
It is irresponsible to make the article so one-sided and only serves to foster a sense of divisiveness in our community at a time when respect, unity and specific facts about what actually happened are most needed.
To be clear, many of us in the Lincoln Sudbury community are concerned. We believe that mistakes were likely made. We further believe that changes at Lincoln-Sudbury or in the CASE Great Opportunities special education program will be required. However, we steadfastly believe that there is likely no change that could have been made to prevent with 100 percent certainty the murder at our high school on Jan. 19.
But most importantly, we wish to make it clear that for the undersigned, Dr. Ritchie and the entire staff at Lincoln Sudbury have our steadfast support.
The letter was written by Doug McCartney.
"Dr. Ritchie has done a fabulous job over the last 10 years, and we have no reason to question his commitment or ability," McCartney said.
McCartney said he used a high school parent email list to ask people if they wanted to sign onto his letter, receiving a strong response from parents and graduates.
-- Adam Sell
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