Ex-Easton Schools Tech Director Target of Search Warrant

Tom Drago, who resigned as EASD technology head last year, is suspected of invasion of privacy, wiretapping violations.

Police suspect former Easton Area School District employee Tom Drago accessed his colleague's computers without their permission, copied documents that may have contained student information, made an unauthorized recording of a closed school board meeting, and may have taken photos of a female school employee's breast, according to a search warrant filed by Forks Township Police. Forks Township police began investigating Drago—who no longer works for the school district—earlier this year. Drago was in charge of technology for the school district for 11 years. So far, Drago—who helped draft the district's policy on acceptable use of technology and Internet before his resignation last year—has not been charged with any crime. "The …

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Parent Appalled by 9/11 Lesson for Fourth Graders

Showing fourth graders graphic images of the 9/11 attacks was inappropriate, says a Lehigh Valley parent

"Teach Your Children Well." We hope that our educators always have that in mind when they teach our children. But educators in the Easton Area School District failed regarding how some children were taught about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on America. Yes, everyone in our country needs to know -- and never forget -- the brutal attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans, destroyed the World Trade Center towers in New York City and brought our country to its knees. Sept. 11 will always be a day on which we should mourn the loss of life and remember the devastation that shook America to its core. But do children who are 9 or 10 years old need to watch the horrific highlights of the attack: the smoldering towers, airplanes crashing into …

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Corbett’s Tax Pledge Costs the Rest of Us

Governor promised not to raise taxes but that means everyone else has to.

In 2014, Gov. Tom Corbett will no doubt campaign that he honored his pledge not to raise taxes during his first term. So far, that’s true -- he just made it so everyone else had to raise them. The screams of anguish and gnashing of teeth you might have heard this spring were school boards throughout the Commonwealth cutting teachers and programs and raising taxes to fill budget gaps. School boards have had to face property owners complaining about another tax increase in a weak economy, plus parents and students angry over program cuts and teacher layoffs.  Remember, school board members are unpaid, and this year it’s got to feel like they volunteered to be crossing guards on I-78.   Mind you, Corbett inherited a boatload of tough choices …

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Rosemary B

3:47 pm on Friday, June 8, 2012

And those are some of the reasons why union contracts do not work. They treat all workers as if they are worth the same. No incentive to try harder than the next person. Breeds mediocrity.   more ›

Life in the Slow Lane

'Nickel and Dimed' Revisited

Barbara Ehrenreich was following in the footsteps of Upton Sinclair, who wrote 'The Jungle.'

In 1904, writer Upton Sinclair spent several weeks living and working with immigrants in the meatpacking industry in Chicago. His observations of the misery and squalor there became the basis for his novel, “The Jungle,” which spurred widespread public revulsion over the unsanitary conditions in the plants. At the time, President Teddy Roosevelt called Sinclair, who was a socialist, “a crackpot” and sent emissaries to inspect the stockyards and plants. They reported back that conditions in the meatpacking plants were, in fact, revolting. Eventually, public pressure moved Congress to enact the Meat Inspection Act and the law that established the agency that later became the Food and Drug Administration. If you’ve never had E. coli from …

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Life in the Slow Lane

School District Did Right by 'Nickel and Dimed'

Lower Saucon resident had urged Easton to remove the book from its high school curriculum.

(Editor's Note: Davis has recently contacted the Southern Lehigh School administration about this same issue. The complaint is currently under review) In 2010, a Lower Saucon Township resident tried to make the case that the Easton Area High School curriculum shouldn’t include the book “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.”   In the book, author Barbara Ehrenreich writes about taking a series of low-wage jobs in Florida, Maine and Minnesota to see if she could live on what she earned. Eric Adams complained to Easton Area’s school board that the book promotes socialist ideas and drug use while belittling Christians.  A committee of Easton teachers and administrators reviewed his complaint and decided the book was appropriate, …

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Jimmy Madden

10:30 pm on Saturday, April 14, 2012

Wow reading the first comment to the last is quite a leap from the original topic. Amusement for nearly a month.   more ›