Letter: Fund-raisers should be safe for kids

Assembly Bill 90, a bill to prevent children from going door-to-door selling items for their schools, was presented last Monday in the Assembly Committee on Education. This bill does not outlaw all fund-raisers, only those that put children at risk while approaching strangers.

Yet those of us who testified in favor of the bill were regaled with stories from Assemblyman Tom Collins about how he sold oranges back in his school days, and with the comment from Assemblyman John Carpenter, who feels it is actually better for the child to sell alone than to bring their parents. Parents tend to embarrass the kids.

Upon hearing from Mr. Werner, whose son was killed selling wrapping paper for PTA in New Jersey, the esteemed committee chairman, Wendell Williams, actually suggested that his son may have been killed anyway, so it made no difference that he was selling items for the school.

He completely overlooked that the boy's killer was a stranger to him, and that he was only in the situation because he wanted to earn a pair of walkie-talkies that were offered as an incentive.

It is nice to know that children are considered to be worth so little in today's market. I somehow expected more from people we elected to oversee the well-being of our children while in school.

BETTY JOHNSON

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