Dear Editor:

On behalf of New York City School Safety Agents and Teamsters Local 237, I would like to express my extreme displeasure with a recent picture and caption published in your “Voice of the People” section. School Safety Agents perform an invaluable civic service as defenders of student and public safety. Their jobs are not easy and never without risk, yet the men and women of our union who serve as School Safety Agents are among the unsung heroes of our education system.

To degrade them in public, and leave your readers with the impression that safety officers are incompetent or lazy is exactly what gives credence to an ill-conceived public perception. The glib remarks made in the caption do nothing more than smear the reputation of some of our educational system’s most valued and underappreciated assets. I would hope that you could clarify their image either by publishing this letter or issuing one of your own, because when the safety of our children is being discussed, the public is owed the truth, not a joke.

Gregory Floyd
President
Teamsters Local 237
New York, New York