To the editor:

“It will appear on your permanent record.”

Those are the words indelibly etched in my mind. I’m the product of the over crowded NYC public schools of the 1950s and ’60s. I long lost count of how many times I heard those words. Teachers in class, principals on loudspeakers, at the close of every assembly, and even as we were leaving for the day. It was as if Big Brother resided in the Bronx.

Those are the words that still resonate in my mind with every breaking news story of someone’s indiscretion be it in college, or when they are long past sowing wild oats and committing acts they are now ashamed of or should be ashamed of.

Maybe it’s time for these words to be ingrained in the minds of today’s youth.

With advances in technology, Permanent Record has a significance my mentors could not have imagined.

LILY DIAMENT-HANSEN

Bainbridge Island