To the Editor:

It is always safe to assume that one has chosen the right path when the keyboard warrior  “A.H.” Liddle takes time to belligerently chastise them in the Warwick Beacon editorial columns. Whether he is turning a holiday greeting card into an invitation to discuss abortion in the local paper, condemning passage of a law requiring drivers to wear seat belts, berating the superintendent for not telling graduates to go get married, or parroting right-wing talking points and conspiracy theories, Alfred H. Liddle is always missing the mark. 

Most recently, he weighed in on controversy at St. Rose of Lima surrounding the termination of a popular teacher. As usual, Mr. Liddle did not let facts get in the way of his opinion. The teacher at issue was wrongfully and publicly accused of inappropriate behavior with a student. An investigation by the Warwick police and the state Department of Children, Youth & Families – two entities that rely on facts and evidence to reach their conclusions – cleared the teacher of any wrongdoing.

 Instead of informing the school community of this exoneration, the school administration told the teacher that he would have to sign a document admitting to wrongdoing in order to be reinstated. When he asked to have the chance to have his wife or attorney view it, the administrator refused and said she would consider him to have voluntarily resigned his position based on his failure to immediately return the signed document. Then, to make matters worse, the administration mailed a letter to the entire school community stating that the teacher had “voluntarily resigned.”

 Mr. Liddle may not be able to distinguish between a lie and the truth, but I can. By distributing this letter, the administrator knowingly disseminated false information without even attempting to clear this teacher’s name within the school community. 

When it became clear that the administration would not reconsider its course of action, a group of parents circulated a petition on Change.org advocating for a change in leadership at St. Rose of Lima. Notably, the petition did not name the school administrator. This petition generated over 600 signatures and significant social media attention where other current and former parents expressed their concerns and discussed other issues they had encountered with the school administrator.

 In response, school administration demanded that the petition be taken offline and when it was not immediately taken down, an email was sent to Milissa Garrity on Friday, June 6, stating that her 6-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son were expelled from the school effective immediately because the contents of the petition violated the parent code of conduct.

This meant telling a 6-year-old that she would not be allowed to attend her last week at school with her friends and would not be permitted to walk the stage at her eagerly anticipated kindergarten graduation ceremony. A face-to-face meeting or phone call indicating that the end of school year would be the end of her family’s relationship with the school would have at least been a civil and moral way to terminate the relationship. What kind of a school administrator punishes a 6-year-old girl for a civil adult disagreement? The same kind of administrator that A.H. Liddle would naturally admire.  

Instead of reacting to the expulsion of an innocent 6-year-old girl or the wrongly persecuted and unjustly terminated teacher, Mr. Liddle rushed to the defense of the administrator who smeared this teacher’s reputation, fired him, lied to the school community about what transpired then punished a kid for an adult issue.

Mr. Liddle paints the administrator as the victim when in fact she has retained her job and the falsely accused teacher she fired is unemployed after 20 years without even having his stellar reputation intact. In exercising its power to terminate the teacher, school administration dismissed parent input and outrage and in turn many parents responded by removing their kids from a school where they no longer felt like the administration was honest and acting in the best interests of their children. In a situation that begged for introspection and accountability the administration chose to deny, deflect and distract –the same tactics employed by tyrannical governments and apparently admired by A.H. Liddle. 

As is his style, Alfred H. Liddle chose to personally attack two mothers of former St. Rose of Lima students because they had the courage to stand up for what they thought was right. As always, Mr. Liddle missed the mark by comparing these mothers to the wicked stepsisters from “Cinderella” (Anastasia & Drizella). The real fairy tale doppelganger is Ebenezer Scrooge and A.H. Liddle. Every week for the last 20-plus years, Mr. Liddle has opened the door into his dark mind and black heart for all to see in the local paper. Like Ebenezer Scrooge, however, it is not too late to repent and see the light and find happiness, compassion and love in his waning years. Mr. Liddle lives in a wonderful city in a beautiful state in the greatest country in the world. I pray he will find a better use for his remaining time above ground than spreading hateful rhetoric in the local paper.

Evan Shanley,

Husband of Anastasia,

Brother-In-Law of Drizella

Warwick