As a current student at Lewiston High School who attended Montello Elementary School for six years, I am startled that anyone would pull a child out because the school was on the “failing” list (Sun Journal, Sept. 5). Instead, these parents want their children to get the same experience they had at some other school. For them, the “failing” is not the reason to switch; it is the oppourtunity.

Montello is not the best school in Maine, but none of the other Lewiston schools does any better. Montello has far more diversity, and better prepares students for latter schooling. Sure, I can understand that parents don’t like their child’s school associated with failing, but parents shouldn’t think that their child will have the same experience they had decades ago.

In the process of pulling students, the diversity and the strength of quite posssibly the best public school in Lewiston could be jeopardized.

Calder Phillips-Grafflin, Lewiston