Opinion

For the last 18 years, I taught a special education class in the Pajaro Valley. Many of my students were farmworker children with learning disabilities: problems paying attention, reading difficulties, hyperactivity, autism, lower IQ and struggles with self-control. I was shocked to discover that one of the most widely used pesticides in the world — chlorpyrifos — has, after over 20 years of solid research at UC Davis, Berkeley, Columbia University and elsewhere, been linked to these difficulties in learning and behavior.

Dec. 6, 2017 marked the one-year anniversary of the teacher’s union contract campaign for a decent raise on our salary schedule and the cap on our health and welfare benefits.

With a 7.1 magnitude earthquake killing more than 300 people in Mexico last week, and an 8.1 magnitude quake striking the southern end of the country earlier in the month, killing nearly 100, a sense of dread is rising throughout California.

Letters to the Editor, May 23, 2017