Shelly Schwinn called me out (“Disheartened by partial truths involving BISD,” Oct. 8) regarding my formal challenge to the now-defunct Leaving Our Island course and so I’m going to respond.

For anyone new to the controversy, LOI lasted five-plus weeks at the middle school and presented one side of the WWII relocation of the Japanese from the West Coast.

Contemporaneous security concerns were discounted in the course. My daughter was one of the students in the program.

I sampled enough of Sakai School events and materials and did enough historical research to understand that that five-week curriculum was an unabashed fundraising activity for a private memorial at Pritchard Park.

I was present at the panel of special presenters for the students at Sakai and I noted that individuals invited to speak to the (young and impressionable) students were the same individuals publicly campaigning for funds for the memorial.

Even more telling, on a unit field trip event students were paraded down to the BPA and treated to a viewing of a scale model of a proposed memorial design along with a spiel for its realization. The whole thing was a sad perversion of the educational process.

I have always advocated for a mature and balanced discussion of this complicated and significant event in island history, with attention devoted to both security needs of the Fort Ward listening post and the concerns regarding Japanese nationals.

My husband and I objected to – and continue to – this particular perversion of our public education. Sad to say, it no longer surprises me that islanders will not refrain from using either the school district or the local police to advance a political agenda.

Mary Victoria Dombrowski

Fort Ward