Students deserve to vote on school board leadership

Regarding “School board’s course correction” (Editorial, Feb. 23): Absent from the city’s school board drama? The student voice. With empty classrooms from one March to the next, a renaming plan for 44 schools, a superintendent resignation and a lawsuit by the city attorney, The Chronicle’s editorial board ultimately charged the San Francisco Board of Education with trivial pursuit. If the school board is out of touch, one partial solution emerges: Let students elect their representation.

It’s not so offthewall. Just in November, Oakland voters granted 16yearold students the right to vote in school board elections. In San Francisco, we should follow suit.

Gov. Gavin Newsom centralized school reopening in his State of the State this month, calling it foundational to equity. And the board not only weighs these decisions, but approves curriculum and sets the district budget. This year has made it clearer than ever that students are the primary stakeholders in education politics. At a reasonable age, they deserve a voice, and school leaders will be better for being accountable to these core constituents.

After the year they’ve had, students need leverage at the ballot box.

Won’t sign petition

Regarding “Newsom’s longshot option to stop recall” (Front Page, March 16): Our governor took the words right out of my mouth when he described those behind the effort as “Trump loyalists and farright wing Republicans,” based on conversations I had with those who asked me to sign their petitions. I would have added maskaverse.

I listened for a time to Newsom’s noontime COVID19 briefings but finally gave up, actually yelling at the radio: Get to the point already! The man gets on my nerves.

The Employment Development Department fiasco may not prove to be of his making, but it happened on his watch and the buck stops with him. And that French Laundry business didn’t help.

I’d have signed one of those petitions based on Newsom’s behavior. Because of who was asking me to sign, I did not.

Abuse victim’s journey

Regarding “East Bay woman to go free in 1989 killing of stepdad” (Bay Area, March 15): Dustin Gardiner’s story on Teresa Paulinkonis’ commutation provides an opportunity to enlighten media on the revictimization of women who kill their sexual abusers.

Teresa unintentionally killed her stepfather as he attempted to rape her. She was sexually assaulted by him from the age of 7.

When she walks out of prison, having spent 31 years of her life incarcerated, she will have earned an associate degree, written a memoir, taught classes, counseled others and successfully advocated for other women. It’s been a long journey for Paulinkonis. As a friend and advocate, I have journeyed with her along with dozens of supporters.

I know the facts of her case and the makeup of her character so it pains me that she is being revictimized by media reports that lack adequately researched facts and rely on language from the commutation and old court records.

In a world run by power brokers who are largely white, privileged males with no idea about women’s lives, it’s sad to see Paulinkonis viewed as monstrous.

For women released from years in prison for killing their abusers, walking out of prison is not always walking free. Their journeys continue.

GOOD WEEK

On 50-49 vote, Senate confirms outgoing state attorney general to become the Biden administration’s secretary of health and human services.

Northern California’s premier outdoor concert event is coming back on Halloween weekend after a pandemic-caused hiatus. Get those vaccines, folks!

It looks like the gubernatorial recall election is a go. It’s going to be a big-money bonanza for spin doctors and strategists.

Excessive graffiti fines

Regarding “Supervisor proposes to halt fines for graffiti” (Bay Area, March 10): As a property owner in San Francisco, my building has been graffitied more than once. Almost immediately each time, I would get a notice from Department of Public Works telling me that it was my responsibility to clean it up, then report to them that the graffiti had been “abated.”

If I did not do it in time, I was threatened with a fine. The notice was not friendly nor sympathetic. Thus, I had been victimized twice, once by the vandal, then by DPW.

To read that the restaurant owner had been fined $300 after repeatedly painting over his graffitied parklet was bad enough, but the $320 “Inspection Fee” was outrageous. How much does that city worker get paid per hour? Or did the inspection require two employees to go look over the paint job? And did it take more than one hour for the employee to leave City Hall, go to the restaurant, look it over, and then get back?

Now, I am a governmentbasher. I know a lot of important and necessary work gets done by city employees. But this seems excessive.

BAD WEEK

The 169-year-old private women’s college announces that it will no longer enroll first-year students, a sad fate for a cherished Bay Area institution.

President Kevin O’Brien is abruptly placed on leave pending investigation into alleged conduct “inconsistent with established Jesuit protocols and boundaries.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom says he’ll appoint a Black woman to succeed the senator if she leaves term early. Whoops! She insists she isn’t.