I am neither from Somalia nor on public assistance — two things Lewiston’s Mayor Bob Macdonald seems to utterly despise. I am, however, a business owner in Lewiston/Auburn and have children in the Lewiston public school system.

I also had the pleasure of working in high school education in my previous career. I have taught in a private school in Chicago that catered to the wealthiest families in that community. I taught in a public school in Florida where the population was more than 60 percent non-white and had a large faction of ELL students. I ended my teaching career working at a boarding school in Massachusetts that catered to the “elite” and wealthy families from across the U.S. and around the world.

All of those schools had issues with student behavior in one form or another. The only advantage I saw at all three of those schools was that parent and teacher collaboration/communication was pushed at every step of the education process.

The implication from Mayor Macdonald that socio-economic status is somehow the sole indication of poor behavior and performance in the schools in Lewiston is offensive and ignorant.

I am, for one, fed up with the mayor “representing” Lewiston to the rest of the state and country in the manner that he does. He is either unwilling or completely unable to hide his hatred for others.

His term cannot end soon enough as far as I am concerned.

Jake Kavanagh, Lewiston

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