Daniel Iracki [Upper St. Clair school board director] wrote, "My extreme ideological positions and religious beliefs are at the heart of all decisions I make." [Letter to the Editor, South, Oct. 12.]

I can only assume that ideology trumped religious beliefs when he looked the other way as fellow school board member Carol Coliane launched an unprovoked attack on me and two other volunteers who were removed from a routine volunteer consent calendar in September. He was silent while she tried to soil our good names and sow doubt about our suitability for working with children, despite the fact that, at our own expense, we fulfilled all paperwork and clearance requirements.

I assume his ideology trumped religious beliefs when he did not support our pleas to learn from Ms. Coliane the reasons she tried to fire us from our long-standing volunteer positions with the Odyssey of the Mind program, and why he did nothing to reverse or even question her attack.

Adding insult to injury, he suggested our ordeal was justified because he also has had his good name questioned. But two wrongs do not make a right, and while he is a public figure, we are simple volunteers who cannot explain ourselves and ask questions from a position of power.

Ms. Coliane's attack on us was vicious and wrong, and that's why it was reversed by an embarrassed school board. Mr. Iracki insisted he was not a "cowardly and unprincipled politician."

I guess he believes that religiously. But based on his deeds in the face of injustice, I beg to differ.

GERALYN AUSTIN

Upper St. Clair

'Earnest' protest?

It is with an overwhelming sense of alarm that I read that the Upper St. Clair school body is to perform "The Importance of Being Earnest." ["Wilde's 'Earnest' Brings Smiles," South, Oct. 26.]

Do they not know that this play was written by a convicted homosexual?

Are they not in the least concerned that, by allowing this play to be performed in front of impressionable young minds, they run the risk of turning the entire high school into Sodomites? Which will, in turn, as Sen. [Rick] Santorum has taught us, force men to have sex with dogs.

I am uncertain how far this ripple effect extends, but I live in Pleasant Hills and do not want to take any chances.

Dr. [Daniel] Iracki, Ms. [Carol] Coliani, all the rest of the Thought Police deputies, please, do your duty and stop this play from happening before I do something inappropriate to my neighbor's beagle.

His fate is squarely in your hands.

MERLE JANTZ

Pleasant Hills