To the editor:

Re: “School board mulls ‘Mosquito’ devices,’” May 4.

The look on my daughter’s face and the faces of all her schoolmates aged five to eight broke my heart. “Why did the bad people come back? Why are they breaking bottles where we play square-ball and hopscotch again? Why did they paint all over our mural again? Why did they burn our play set?”

How do I tell them that a complaint from the B.C. Civil Liberties Association scared the Vancouver School Board into turning off the high frequency sound emitters called “mosquitoes” that had run during late hours to deter young vandals? How do I tell them about political correctness, political posturing, pseudo-crusaders of justice? They just want to go to school and not see the mural of cute otters and birds defaced for once. They just want to swing on the swing set without it having burn marks on it. They just want to laugh and sing as they skip or hopscotch without having to watch for glass shards every week. And that’s what I want for them too.

So I have a few apologies and words for those responsible: My apologies to all the young ne’er-do-wells whose sensitive hearing is irritated when you are burning, spray-painting, and breaking bottles in a place where children play because I want those devices back on. My apologies to the BCCLA for opposing your wrong-headed sense of “liberty” that champions the bully instead of the weak. My apologies to the VSB for being a parent who supports how your “authority” was sidestepped when parents and principals took action where we knew you would not. Thank you so much for letting the kids down. Thank you for ruining their childhood and traumatizing them to protect your own sensibilities.

Just do me a favour and tell my little girl and all her friends why her school was vandalized again because of you.

Ted Ng, Vancouver