To the editor:

Did I get this right, Woodward Middle School is lucky enough to have church volunteers to help during lunch, and, the district, based on faulty assumptions, hired an inquisitor for $260 an hour, to investigate whether that faulty assumption was indeed faulty.

Would it not have been easier, quicker and cheaper, had the district asked the Woodward teachers whether the church volunteers had proselytize, or sermonized, or spoken in tongues?

The students would have learned a couple of new words and the district would have learned that what it knew already; no dogmas of Jesus, God, Allah, or Buddha were promoted.

Or, and I know it sounds crazy, but could not have some administrators taken time out of their undoubtedly very busy schedules and do the questioning themselves? Woodward would have survived. I once experienced teaching without a superintendent’s and director of secondary education’s guidance for two weeks, it was tough, but the school survived.

So, ultimately the district learned what it already knew, and not to trust rumors, at a cost of $14,382. Ah, well, we all know that good education does not come cheap, and, compared to the $300,000 bullying fine the district must pay, the $14,382 lawyer fee seems like a bargain for 54 hours of work.

JAMES BEHREND

Bainbridge Island