Your Viewpoint
Letters to the Editor
God stayed with Jaylon all the time

By FAITH CLOTIAUX Jasper

A few weeks ago our son Jaylon had an accident during baseball practice. He was airlifted from the ball field to St. Elizabeth Hospital in Beaumont. While this was a traumatic time for his teammates, friends and our family, God was standing with Jaylon.

One friend told me that prayers were going up for Jaylon before he ever hit the ground, and another that his guardian angel was holding him in the palm of his hand when he hit the wall, still another put out prayer request by e-mail and myspace.

By the way, I think Jaylon's angel works a lot of overtime. Praise God!

While we waited anxiously for the first 24 hours to pass after Jaylon's injury, Jasper went to their knees and prayed for one of their own. When Jaylon left the ballpark that day, parents, teammates and friend were praying as he was being lifted into the air by the Med-Air helicopter.

When we got to the hospital in Beaumont, an off-duty nurse and friend of the family came to the emergency room to help guide us through emergency room trauma procedures.

This young woman grew up in Jasper and graduated with my older son, and someone had called her to tell her Jaylon was on his way via Med-Air. Again, God's hand!

We will be eternally grateful to her for her presence that day. We had many such experiences during our time in the hospital and witnessed God's presence in every one that had contact with Jaylon, from doctors, nurses and physical therapists, to friends, family and even other baseball teams in the area.

We will be forever grateful for the love, support and prayers of this community during this crisis. It is only by the grace of God that Jaylon is still with us and able to walk across the stage during graduation this Friday night.

We are so proud to live in Jasper and the true "jewels" are the people of this town. Thanks to all for your thoughts and prayers during our family's time of need.

Decision says its okay to fail test

By ANDREW KIER Jasper

By a 4-3 vote the Jasper Independent School District School Board chose to allow seniors who have not passed all areas of the TAKS test to be able to walk and take part of the commencement ceremonies.

This is a privilege you get when you get all of your work done, including passing these exams. This vote is ridiculous and should not be in effect. Many students work hard and get the job done and they are the students that should be congratulated and are able to take part in these activities.

The Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test is a state mandated test that the school system spends so much time preparing students to take.

Time is wasted during school for teachers to prepare students for this test. Tutorials are offered after school as well. This is not a test that students should fail. What are these students doing instead of taking advantage of the help that is offered to them?

After talking with someone who gives help to seniors on thin ice such as this I learned that of the students who fail, only a very small percentage of them and their parents actually show up to get things on the right track.

Since it is already proven that TAKS is not a test designed for you to fail we need to see what type of signal this sends to the students who passed and failed the exams. For the students who passed and got the job done I would like to personally congratulate you for all your hard work but evidently four members of the school board do not care. To those who have failed the test and are allowed to take part in the commencement ceremony, four members of the school board feel

as if you need to be congratulated and

that it is okay for you to fail.

Thanks for all the good rides

By KENNETH HODGES Jasper

As I approach the end of my bus-driving career, I thought it would be a good time to write a thank you note to all the many students and parents of buses (53 and 64) and now 84.

Bus driving has certainly changed from 30 years ago. I've had some problems but mostly have enjoyed my driving.

I've also had good bosses and people I've worked with and I thank them also. It's been a good ride (pardon the pun).

Letters to editor criteria outlined

The Jasper Newsboy would like to publish your thoughts and concerns about issues that are important to you. All Letters to the Editor should be accompanied with the writer's name and daytime telephone number for verification purposes.

Phone numbers will not be published, but the author's name will be.

Under no circumstances will the author's name be withheld.

All letters are subject to editing for newspaper style and clarity, without changing the meaning of the content.

Letters should be limited to 300 words.

Letters endorsing or opposing political candidates are considered political advertising and will be forwarded to the advertising department.

Deadline for letters is 10 a.m. Monday to be published in the following Wednesday's publication.

Mail letters to: The Jasper Newsboy P.O. Box 1419 Jasper, Texas 75951-1419 or e-mail to: jgalvan@jaspernewsboy.com