Children Used as Political Pawns

* Regarding the Pacoima anti-Proposition 187 demonstration, even more galling than the church involvement in a state issue is the exploitation of small children to further their cause. Parents, legal or not, certainly have the right to drag their kids along on a rally, but I am astounded that Pacoima School would participate by bringing its drum corps to the rally.

I would like to know how the principal of a taxpayer-funded public school can justify the “learning lesson” that it’s OK to break existing immigration laws, not to mention the blurring of the church and state issue. How did the teachers at Pacoima explain this “school activity” to their students? More importantly, does this rally indicate that grammar school classrooms are being used to drum up anti-187 sentiment?

These are questions that I certainly intend to ask the Los Angeles school board, and I would hope that many other parents will put pressure on the schools to nip in the bud this practice of using children as pawns in a political issue.

JAN BROWN

Van Nuys