Lincoln County News Error
By Caroline Bond
To the Editor,
I need to respond to your two photos and captions, of the fingerprinting of
school personnel held in Wiscasset, in the March 30 issue of the Lincoln
County News. I was one of the teachers in your photo. You neglected to
mention that out of approximately 240 school personnel scheduled to be
fingerprinted only 176 showed up. Your caption said only one refused, it
would appear the rest refused by not showing up. You also put words in my
mouth - words I did not even say. Here are the three statements I made: I
responded to a State Trooper who was lecturing a colleague of mine on the
necessity of performing background checks. I said criminal background
checks could already be performed in the state of Maine without
fingerprinting. Another State Trooper then came over to tell me this was
not the place to debate the issue. The first State Trooper continued to
state his point of view. When I was told where I needed to sign in, I
simply went up to the table, handed over my card, stated my name and that I
was refusing to be fingerprinted. As I was being asked to leave I was told
they had business to conduct and implied I was getting in their way. I
stated yes, the business of taking away rights of honest citizens. Those
were my three statements. Your reporting was one sided. Given your
editorial on the issue it appears you wish to emphasize that because only
one person showed up and refused, then the fingerprinting of honest people
must be the right thing to do. Let me remind you that what is right is not
always popular and what is popular is not always right.
Caroline Bond
Maine Educators Against Fingerprinting
Jefferson