This letter was read by Stephanie Rodriguez at the public portion of the 3/6/14 Perth Amboy Board of Education Meeting.

My name is Stephanie Rodriguez and I am a sophomore at Perth Amboy High School:

Today I am going to be doing something different. I am going to read a letter written by someone who has endured through so much. A letter written by a teenager, no, written by a highly mature teenager.

To whomever cares to listen:

I begin this way because I find that people pretend to listen but not care. I am human, I am a young human. One that has not been able to start life. I have dreams, goals, and aspirations. I have wants as I do needs. But, most importantly, I have rights. Civil Rights, Constitutional Rights, (pause) Educational Rights. All of which have been violated more than once by the people who should least violate MY rights. Promises have been made and broken. Lies have been told and followed through. It is wrong for me to fight back but right for you to destroy me.

Famous singer, songwriter, actress, author and ambassador of many organizations, Demi Lovato recorded a song at the age of 15, a line I’ve been dying to say, “You can take everything I have, you can break everything I am, like I’m made of glass, like I’m made of paper.” so today I tell everyone who has tried to break me, “go on and try to tear me down, I WILL be rising from the ground like a skyscraper.” It is time to stop going to Wal-Greens. You have wasted all the band-aids, THERE ARE NO MORE. It’s time to stitch the battle wounds with quality stitches. When you eat something, your body digests it, then your body releases the toxins, things your body does not need.

The body represents the Perth Amboy School District. Its time for this district and its leaders to cut the crap. You are HURTING ALL of the students in this district in one way or another. When the body does not release the toxins, it begins to deteriorate eventually becoming fatal. How do you feel working for a district where the graduation rate is the equivalent of a person JUST passing a class? How do YOU feel when you make a student enter a mental crisis in the middle of the school year, making them miss an entire week of school, TWICE?

Last Friday, at the high school, principal Dr. Collazo, the Honorable Mayor Diaz, Acting Superintendent Rodriguez and Board of Education President Gonzalez were all booed by the entire Sophomore and Junior classes from Main Campus, here in this very room! It can be made official, YOU have caused the extinction the students trust and respect towards yourselves. Congratulations! In conclusion, I must say that politics NEEDS to be thrown out of the window. STOP SWEEPING THINGS UNDER THE RUG!!!

Sincerely,

A student who gives a damn

On a much more personal note, to ALL of the fools that said “no” or “it will take too long” for me to get a person to simply wheel me at Saturdays St. Patrick’s Day Parade in South Amboy, I get told and pushed to join clubs and participate in activities and when an activity comes up I get DENIED the opportunity simply because the administration gives too many excuses! It got so out of control that my heartbroken band members were trying to figure out a way to play and march and my band director even OFFERED to PUSH ME DURING THE PARADE if my family couldn’t find someone, ITS NOT HER RESPONSIBILITY!

Well, guess what, not only is a firefighter going to push me in the parade in uniform, but, in the case he can’t make it, a police officer will push me in uniform, both volunteers from the city of Perth Amboy. How sad is that? The School District continues failing me greatly with their second to last latest being that since February 12, an one on one instructor has been falsely offered.