Required Student Service Decried

I am appalled that the Saddleback Valley Unified School District has voted to force community service requirements on its high school students (“District to Require Community Service,” May 13).

This decision establishes the board as an institution for social engineering instead of education.

They apparently believe that students’ lives are the property of the community to be used in any way they desire and that involuntary servitude is justified whenever public officials desire it. This is what the school board is really doing when it implements such visions under the guise of making students “give something back to the community.”

Since the board believes that eight hours of forced service is good, then 80 or 800 hours will surely be considered in future voting. Parents who support community service have every right to ask it of their own children but no right to demand it from others.

As I see it, my money is taken through forced taxation to support a monopolized educational system which then turns around and claims that my children “owe the community” for the services it provides. I have no desire to offer up my children’s lives as sacrifices to the state for any reason, especially in repayment for schooling that I am already paying for.

I would, however, like to thank board members Frank Ury and Debbie Hughes for their votes to preserve constitutional liberty and individual rights. I only wish the other members of the board were more interested in education than socialist idealism.

TIMOTHY BRADFORD

Lake Forest