Total technology bans are not right for our high schools
Re: “School cellphone policies are being decided right now — with or without you,” April 26 commentary, and “DPS panel advocates phone ban in schools,” April 17 news story
Cellphones are a fact of life in our technologically sophisticated world, and public schools are responsible for teaching 21st-century skills to our youth. A total ban on cellular technology leaves our teens unprepared for the reality of career and life after graduation.
Just as “abstinence only” education doesn’t prevent teen pregnancy, complete technology bans do not foster responsible cellphone use or the self-direction required of emerging adults. Many of these young adults hold jobs, drive cars, and vote in presidential elections. They are responsible cashiers, lifeguards and babysitters. They can be drafted to serve our country in a time of war, and I think we can trust them to text friends to find a lunch meet-up or use their phone to buy lunch during the weekday.
With a total cellphone ban, I wouldn’t have gotten the “I’m OK, Mom” texts after multiple school shootings and SWAT incidents, hours before any Denver Public Schools notification arrived.
Today’s youth are growing up in a world infinitely different from the one I grew up in. The responsible and appropriate use of cellphone technology should have a scaffolded approach consistent with other learning and technology objectives. Just as the educational needs and expectations of a second grader vastly differ from those of a 12th grader and the cellphone policy should be too. Please don’t completely ban phones and watches in our high schools!
Joanne Scarbeary, Denver
Vote no on SB 135 and tell legislators to ‘live within their means’
Re: “SB 135 allows us to give our kids the education they deserve,” April 26 commentary
Senate Bill 135 is a boondoggle. would reduce TABOR refunds for more uncontrolled spending. Kevin Vick pointed out in his April 26 commentary that schools lack air conditioning. And that teachers are woefully underpaid. K-12 education is specifically funded by Amendment 23 and provides an inflationary increase.
Sixty percent of my property taxes in Adams County go directly to K-12 education. Teachers receive a pension benefit that most Coloradans do not. Who wouldn’t want a guaranteed pension as part of their compensation package?
As far as maintenance, school districts should be more responsible with their funds. recently that Joint Budget Committee member Barb Kirkmeyer calls this a slush fund, and the bill does not detail how the $28.5 billion would be spent.
Colorado Medicaid has proved that the progressive leadership cannot be responsible with funds, given the fraud that has occurred in that program. And here the progressive party in charge wants more money with no accountability.
The progressives who are in charge of our government should do what Coloradans are already doing: live within their means. The answer to SB 135 is a big “No.”
Jeff Jasper, Westminster
This immigrant’s love story hits readers differently
Re: “Waiting to be together,” April 26 news story
This article is a biased piece intended to make us all feel sorry yet again for people who skirt the system and then cry foul when they are asked to live with the consequences of their decisions.
My son met an amazing Canadian woman 10 years ago while she was traveling through our country on vacation. Love ensued and they jumped through all the hoops required by our immigration policies. Was it easy? No. Even after they got married, they had to spend another year apart (and she was not even allowed to come here for a visit) before she was able to move here legally and get her green card. She is now a citizen.
When I read slanted stories like the one in The Post, I have to think, “Cry me a river! Go back to your own country and come here the legal way like so many before you.”
Michelle Murphy, Lone Tree
Kudos to your writer, Elizabeth Hernandez, for her portrayal of the story of Lucie Donovan and her ICE-detained husband, Juan, father of three; a roofer without a criminal history, who overstayed a 2018 work visa, and was swept up in an instance of ICE serving an arrest warrant upon one of his acquaintances in 2025.
Sadly, even with legal representation and despite the writer’s well-documented description of their love and marriage, this couple is necessarily making plans for what seems like a looming contingency of failure on his green card case, of voluntarily moving to Mexico.
Lord knows, America doesn’t need roofers, or special education teachers for that matter, right? There’s not much real fact or significant numbers to back the oft-repeated President Trump mantra about removing the worst, the prison rejects, the gang members and criminals, but there seem to be countless cases like Juan’s.
Peter Ehrlich, Denver
Hardware stores stocked with lifelong memories for readers
Re: “Hardware stores hold the mundane, the magical,” April 26 feature story
Every day except Wednesday and Sunday, I pull out The Post’s sports section, find the pages with the comics, puzzles, Asking Eric, and tech news, and toss away the sports. That starts my day over breakfast. On Sunday, the routine is different. I find the Life & Culture section to check Sunday night TV listings for Channel 6 and read Asking Eric before I rip off the last two pages and begin the two crossword puzzles.
This Sunday, I was waylaid on Page 1 with the feature about hardware stores, and I read it first, before TV or Asking Eric. The author is a person after my own heart. I grew up with a father and brothers who saved every little part, gadget, fastener, stored in wooden cheese boxes on a bank of shelves, all carefully labeled. A few of those boxes are still in my own garage. When I began buying houses for rentals in the mid-1980s, Hugh M. Woods was my go-to because it was smaller. I lamented when they closed the General Hardware on South Broadway because it always had the older parts I needed. Then I converted to Ace Hardware, where my motto has been “it’s an hour in Home Depot, and 10 minutes in Ace” because, after all, time is money. There is always someone to greet me and direct me if I don’t know my way. 12th Avenue Ace Hardware and Ace on The Fax are my stores, and you captured them perfectly.
Thank you for disrupting my routine. Great article!
Jessie Tramutolo, Denver
Loved your column Sunday morning about 12th Avenue Ace Hardware. Like you, that place is our go-to for all sorts of stuff. We also love Moore Lumber & Hardware in Pine Junction and its sibling in Bailey. Hardware stores are being eased out, it seems, in favor of the Home Depots of the world, and it’s a damn shame. I’m hoping that 12th Avenue will survive long past the time that we will.
Caroline Schomp, Denver
I love them too, and my husband, Dick, and I especially liked the larger Country Stores we found when living in New England. And your description of your dad in his workshop made me nostalgic for my dad and his. He made special things for my sister and me. Unfortunately no desks.
I can still smell the sawdust. Thanks for the memories.
Dotttie Lamm, Denver
Editor’s note: Lamm is a former first lady of Colorado.
Are New Mexico voters content with Democrats’ outcomes?
Re: “New Mexico gubernatorial race: Haaland’s run hits a primary snag,” April 26 news story
Reis Thebaultap New York Times article regarding Deb Haaland’s surprise primary challenge from Sam Bregman in New Mexico’s Democrat primary for governor also put a spotlight on that state’s most dire problems.
The story stated that New Mexico has one of the highest percentages in the country of residents who are reliant on food stamps and Medicaid, one of the highest rates of violent crime, and one of the worst national rankings in education. Situations like these don’t develop overnight, but over decades of bad governance.
Since 1987, New Mexico has had three Republican governors for a combined 20 years in office, and three Democrats for another 20 years through the current term. Equal blame there, but the numbers in the state congress tell the true story. During the same period, the Democrats have held a majority in the state House of Representatives every year except the 2015-2016 legislative session. Even more amazing, in the state Senate, the Democrats have had the majority every year.
Why do the citizens of New Mexico keep voting for the same Democratic state leadership that has proved itself over 40 continuous years to be woefully inept at lifting the quality of life in their state? Maybe they should change the slogan on their license plates to The Land of the Enchanted by the Democrat Party.
Kevin Getz, Westminster
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