The threat at Olathe East High School wasn’t a mask or a history book. It was a gun

The real threat

On Friday, a student allegedly brought a gun to Olathe East High School and used it. How many students failed to return to class Monday morning out of fear because of their experience on Friday? How many students in the middle school or the elementary school, which were meeting places for high school students and parents, were afraid to return to school? How many siblings of those high schoolers are concerned about returning to school?

Their fear has nothing to do with a mask, nothing to do with a history course, nothing to do with books that parents want banned. It has everything to do with a student who had access to a gun and gun laws that allow that access.

How is a student mature enough to handle a deadly weapon but not mature enough to handle actual history or a novel, as some parents at school board meetings insist?

- Sarah Green, Overland Park

Just red tape

The Lee’s Summit City Council has approved a policy of conducting a very time-consuming and costly drive-by inspection of every residential and commercial property in the city to check for code violations.

This policy has been in operation in several nearby cities and proved to be a joke. It became a political practice where in some instances a property with several violations is overlooked while another is immediately cited for only one violation.

When there is unsightly debris, tree growth, vegetation or an unlicensed or inoperable vehicle on a property, a member of the community will invariably report it to the city. The city will send a notice telling the owners of the property to clean it up in 10 days or they will be prosecuted.

I appreciate Bob Johnson, the only council member who voted against the proposal, expressing concerns about adding staff and the potential impact it could have on the city’s budget. He evidently considered the scope of the procedure and the extra burden it would put on the taxpayers.

- Phyllis Pesch, Lee’s Summit

The time is now

Let all Americans join in a grassroots campaign to nominate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the Nobel Peace Prize. He is the duly elected president of a sovereign nation. He just wants to lead his people and govern his country during times of peace and prosperity. Currently, he is leading the fight for his country’s survival and the freedom of his people.

Yes, we are outside the routine nomination window. However, the Nobel Prize Committee must be made to realize that time is fleeting, and we unfortunately have legitimate reason to fear Zelenskyy may soon no longer be with us.

- Tom Williams, Overland Park

Even more crimes

The emerging debate about whether Russian President Vladimir Putin is guilty of war crimes focuses on unnecessary civilian casualties, which are certainly war crimes and horrific, but only part of the war crimes he has committed. He is also guilty of crimes against peace, crimes first defined at the Nuremberg trials in 1945 and used to prosecute Nazis, who had launched aggressive wars against neighboring countries.

Putin is guilty of crimes against peace by his invasion of Ukraine, just as the U.S. was guilty of crimes against peace by its 2003 invasion of Iraq. The disinformation about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, used as a pretext for our invasion, was an attempt by our government officials to avoid responsibility for crimes against peace. Our use of torture was, of course, also a war crime.

- Gordon Risk, Kansas City

Detectors work

In her Tuesday guest commentary “When I went to Olathe East, guns didn’t threaten us” (7A) about last week’s shooting at Olathe East High School, Valerie Sprout claims that metal detectors won’t work as a deterrent. Why not? They seem to be working at airports and public buildings.

Detectors are expensive to install and operate, but if they prevent just one incident, wouldn’t they be worth the expense?

- Robert Willson, Kansas City

A thousand words

I have been a Kansas City Star reader for the past 40-plus years. The picture of the Ukranian boy and his cat hiding from Russian shelling on Monday’s front page is an example why print media is vital to our understanding of current events. Nothing could capture the agony and misery of the current crisis in Eastern Europe better than that photograph and the story that accompanied it. Keep telling the stories.

- Kathleen Alm, Blue Springs