After reading Roy Lee's "Language department working to resolve internal disputes" article (Dec. 15, 2006), we would like to commend him for writing about a complex and heated topic.

We would like to comment on two of Mrs. Ong's statements. Mrs. Ong said that student request "numbers are transparent." They are not. Mrs. Ong also said, "This (student numbers) information has already been made open to the entire department. It has not.

At the end of every school year Mrs. Ong hands out to each department member, a sheet of paper with numbers of students who want to study specific languages. These numbers, according to Mrs. Ong, are based on the original student requests (yellow cards).

We have had no way of verifying the accuracy of the numbers that Mrs. Ong has supplied us all these years. Many veteran teachers (who have taught at Lowell for over ten, some over twenty years) have asked the former and present administration to allow us to see the original student requests (yellow) cards.

Even though the administration has admitted that they are public records and that we have a legal right to them, we continue to be frustrated by the refusal of the present administration to give us access to them.

Since scheduling for fall 2007 language classes will be predicated on information gleaned from the yellow cards of previous years, the subcommittees need to view them.The administration will only allow the subcommittees to see the yellow cards of the syudents with last priority.

Seeing the previous years' yellow cards would not only better inform the subcommittees in scheduling future language classes, but would also clarify which language classes Mrs. Ong has formed based on students' third choice for their study of a world language. When asked at the subcommittee's first and only meeting to date, "How many language classes have been formed based on students' third choice?"

Mrs. Ong replied that she did not know. Administration's refusal to show us the yellow cards does not protect students. Whom does this action protect?

John Raya
John Ryland
Nahleen Pang