LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Dear Editor:

The article about the school janitor was necessary. Thank you for printing it.

As a parent of an elementary school student in Ouray I found the actions of Tyler Smith, mentioned in the Plaindealer article, very disturbing and I applaud the Plaindealer for helping inform the public about this important issue. This isn’t the first time Tyler has gotten into trouble regarding inappropriate behavior with young girls at the school. While he was a student there, he was kept from attending school for weeks to look into an alleged molestation. The actions that resulted in his firing were part of a disturbing pattern.

If you are working at a school with young kids and you get caught taking photos of elementary aged girls bending over with their underwear showing, you don’t deserve to have that information kept secret. That situation should not be handled sensitively for the benefit of someone displaying characteristics of a pedophile.

The safety of the children in our community is of the utmost importance. Our school and law enforcement should do everything in their power to prevent heinous acts from happening. I appreciate the paper notifying the community about Tyler’s actions. If you were his neighbor and had young children, don’t you think you should know about what he did at the school?

In response to Barbara Vickers’ letter stating that Ouray residents shouldn’t be privy to the details about this, I couldn’t disagree more. All parents in this area should know about it. Attempting to brush this issue under the rug isn’t going to help anyone and endangers my child and all the children of Ouray. Informing the public about this is warranted and may help prevent even worse events from occurring.

Chris Price

Ouray