Letters received

Author

Publish Date

Oct. 23, 2013

Friend Request

Re: “The First Time I See Eliza Jane Schneider Onstage, I Want to Be Her Friend.”

My friend and I had the great good fortune to see Eliza JaneSchneider’s stunning one-woman show, Freedom of Speech. For those not so fortunate, Elizabeth Salaam captured Ms. Schneider’s warm, humble genius.

Ms. Schneider traveled throughout the U.S. meeting memorable people, and then carted them back with her to the stage. We meet these people through Eliza Jane. She does not act so much as channel them. She presents their voices with respect, even those most of us would avoid on the street (actually, especially those people).

At the end, in what may be the most riveting minutes of theater I have ever witnessed, each character speaks or sings through her once more.

It is a shame that this article didn’t appear while Freedom of Speech was still running. I hope the interest in one of San Diego’s many fine theater venues will be piqued by Ms. Salaam’s article, and that more people will have the chance to experience Ms. Schneider’s moving, perfectly-pitched paean to the human spirit.

And yes, like Elizabeth Salaam, my friend and I had the opportunity to speak with Ms. Schneider after the show and, yes, I want her to be my friend too.

Lack of Reasonable Suspicion

Re: Neighborhood News: “Unreasonable Search of Olympian High School Students?”

“A student’s right to freedom of speech doesn’t end at theschoolhouse gate.” This is a quote from a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case titled Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District. Tinker was a case in which the wearing of black arm bands by students at school was at issue. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled for John Tinker and his sister, Beth. The Court ruled that school districts cannot prohibit students from wearing arm bands on campus that are not disruptive.

A student’s right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures doesn’t end at the schoolhouse gate. A school official or his designee must “have reasonable suspicion that a student has committed a crime” in order to search a student without the student’s consent The rule is based on the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment against unreasonable search and seizures as applied to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment.

In the case involving the two high school girls at the Chula Vista area high school, school officials lacked reasonable suspicion to search the girls. Reasonable suspicion requires particularized suspicion, which was lacking in the case. “Two African- American girls did it” is not reasonable suspicion.

Charles P. Rider
Alpine

Name That Animal

I’m calling about an error on “Seal Threateningly Follows Man.” The animal you have pictured there is not a seal. It is a sea lion.

Sea lions inhabit La Jolla Cove; seals do not come into the cove much. Seals and sea lions don’t get along. They’re completely different species. They’d be like lions and tigers, but they’re not even that close.

There are a lot of people that call everything a seal, but sea lions are much different. Sea lions bark; seals don’t bark. Sea lions walk on their front flippers; seals don’t. Sea lions have ears; seals don’t. There are a whole lot of differences between the two. I don’t know who reported this thing — I think some of the lifeguards don’t even know the difference — but there are huge differences.

Sea lions get to be about 700 pounds. A really big seal might be 150. Seals are the ones that inhibit the beach at Children’s Pool. Sea lions don’t go down there much. The two species coexist, but they don’t tend to interact. Wherever one of them has set up their home, the other ones won’t come in there. Whether they fight out there in the water or what, I don’t know.

Doug Burleigh
via voicemail

Help Wanted

In SD on the QT it talks about possibly winning a Corona Tailgate Party. I don’t understand if this is actually a true and viable ad or not. Or is it satire? Please help.

Name Withheld
via email

SD on the QT is the Reader’s “almost factual news” column. — Editor