Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 165, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 July 1915 — SAYS LAMSON FORCED DAUGHTER TO RESIGN [ARTICLE]

SAYS LAMSON FORCED DAUGHTER TO RESIGN

Mother of Young Lady Who Taught School in Walker Township Writes to Republican. South Bend, Ind., July 12, 1915. Editor Republican: Having read the comments on the manner in which Mr. Lamson has been handling the Jasper county schools, there is something I wish to have explained. Why should the school in district No. 8 at Fair Oaks be without a teacher the latter part of August if there are so many deserving applicants in Jasper county? The latter part of August, 1914, a son of Trustee Karch who was attending school at Winona, Ind., asked Prof. Imel to put the application for a teacher for No. 8 school of Walker township before the Teacher’s Assembly. No one cared to take the position. Prof.. Imel recommended my daughter, Valerie Miller, who was taking a teacher’s course at Winona, having graduated from the South Bend high school and also having finished a post-graduate course there.

After the course was finished at Winona it was too late for her to get a school in South Bend as the teachers had all been appointed, so she accepted the position at No. 8. She was treated unfairly by Mr. Lamson, who forced her to resign by threats, telling ■her the people were all against her and were going to put her out of the school. We found afterwards that the only ones who were not in favor of her were the parents of several large boys who were fit only for the reformatory. These boys even assaulted the younger girls on their way to and from school, tearing their clothes and otherwise mistreating them. My daughter asked Mr. Lamson to assist in governing these boys, but he told her that she should resign if she could not control them. Has this school been conducted in the lawless fashion always or did those boys act that way because my daughter was an outsider? Why wasn’t this school given to some worthy young man who was capable of handling these unruly young men? After my daughter resigned the school was given to a young-lady who came from south of Indianapolis. We understand she gave up the position before the term expired. We cannot understand why such conditions exist in a civilized country, where education is considered such a valuable asset. The Republican no doubt remembers the item published by Mr. Lamson in October, 1914, which stated that a Miss Miller who had been teaching the school at Fair Oaks *had so worried Mr. Karch that it caused him to have a stroke of apoplexy. My daughter called on Mr. Karch’s family, who denied this charge. Mr. Lamson even went so far as to send an exaggerated and undesirable report of my daughter’s ability as a teacher to a prominent lawyer of our city, thereby intending to destroy all her chances of obtaining a school in this locality. We believe that Mr. Lamson could have been forced to resign then had we wished to carry the matter further. We have sent these facts to you only because we are advocates of good education and fair play in all things.—Mrs. V. B. Miller.