Letter- Simmons disputes facts

Dear Editor,

There are many corrections that need to be made from Meg Heaton’s article Complaints against Ahlin unfounded on page 4A in last week’s newspaper.

In the section of the article Heaton is referring to me, April Simmons, as she is writing about what was said by the school district appointed attorney.

His facts were incorrect as are hers and they need to be set straight.

I have never and would never leave students unattended as Heaton’s article states. Also, I left the building on a lunch break. Deb Weissert left a message on my voicemail stating that I was suspended. She did not leave any information other than she was unavailable to talk. So since I had one and a half hours between classes, I took my lunch break to go try to find some answers since Weissert was so rude as to only leave a message that I was suspended. Heaton’s article goes on with more inaccuracies to say that I then returned to the school and confronted a teacher in front of students. This is completely false!

The teacher came across the gym to me, where I was subbing for the day as a gym teacher, introduced herself and apologized for her students being so “naughty.” She felt horrible that her students were not better behaved in her absence. This discussion happened in the gymnasium while the students were involved in warm ups and not even within earshot of our voices.

This is like the old game of Telephone. As the message gets talked about the true story gets more and more distorted! I would be happy to share my side of the story with anyone that is genuinely interested, because what is being said is untrue and completely distorted.

I thought it was a reporter’s job to get both sides of the story before writing an article. I thought newspapers were supposed to be neutral and report both viewpoints.

Tom Holland spoke at the last board meeting about not making personal attacks when discussing the issues. The thing is this situation is extremely personal to me. Also, Waldspurger encouraged the school to file defamation suits against those who are making false claims.

If I follow that advice I should be suing the school district and the newspaper!

April Simmons, Hudson

Tags: opinion, letters, education