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Letters
to the editor
Froggie-Five-O,
TCU Police put student safety first
In her column, “Student safety should
not be washed out with the rain,” Sandy Stafford comments on
the competence of Froggie-Five-O drivers, as well as their ability
to deal with inclement weather. It does not appear that Ms. Stafford
has researched the origin of her complaints.
Froggie-Five-O
does not train its drivers to wait around 10 minutes to upset its
escorts. Depending on where the escort is in relation to the driver,
they will be picked up within 5 minutes of the driver receiving
the call. So Froggie-Five-O does not wait around to upset or abandon
its escorts.
The
other point Ms. Stafford made that I don’t agree with is in
regards to Tuesday night (March 19). The weather was being monitored
on The Weather Channel that night. According to the forecast, there
was a severe thunderstorm warning for the entire evening. For safety
reasons only, the TCU Police does not want Froggie-Five-O students
driving around in lightning. No one was, and I quote, “afraid
the golf carts would melt.”
If
there are problems with Froggie-Five-O, they should be addressed
before they are falsely exploited.
—Michael
Maloney, Froggie-Five-O supervisor, sophomore Spanish major
In
response to the article written by Sandy Stafford, “Student
Safety should not be washed out by the rain.” Her remarks are
based on incomplete facts and poor journalistic practice. Froggie-Five-O
does a very important service for the student body. No one is perfect,
but these students devote long hours while performing an excellent
service. Sandy failed to show all sides of an issue, which seems
to be a reoccurring theme in most of her articles.
Yes,
there is a waiting period for escorts and most students wait in
secure buildings or vehicles until the escort arrives and then meet
the driver who will escort them to a destination. If the wait is
10 minutes or longer, it normally is due to an over-log of calls,
bad weather or driving distances from one point to another.
The
recent night in which Sandy refers to was a safety issue for the
drivers and passengers of an open cart and so the TCU Police took
over escorts for obvious reasons (poor weather conditions, lightning,
etc.). In reference to “abandoned golf carts,” they are
never abandoned and all drivers carry a radio with them to respond
to calls. These workers perform duties in an open-air cart without
the luxury of heater or air conditioning until 1 a.m. In response
to the sarcasm directed at the TCU Police officer who gave an escort
to a student in bad weather; as police officers they wish to protect
and serve you, in any conditions. They do so on a regular basis
and often in the hours when most are asleep. These unselfish officers
consistently pursue service on your behalf.
—Jeff
Tucker, Former TCU Police officer, graduate history major
Hate
speech reflects ignorance, insensitivity
I just wanted to applaud Emily Ward’s
column on students being conscious of hate speech. The earlier a
person can learn tolerance the better. Last week, I was reminded
by our new neighbor just how hateful and insensitive people can
be. He was returning a piece of my mail that he mistakenly received
and we started discussing cable versus DirecTV.
He
was ranting that he didn’t want to pay extra for all the radio
stations on his Direct TV, and went on to say he hated “Mexican
music and gospel.”
In
that one comment, he was spewing hatred toward Hispanics and African
Americans. What he didn’t know was that my husband is Hispanic
and my daughter’s best friend is black. This man is probably
in his late fifties and there is no doubt in my mind that there
would be no words I could use that could get past his ignorance
and hatred. We all need to do what we can to educate future generations
to choose their words carefully, and as Emily said, express love
instead of hate.
—Lisa
Peña, library employee
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