State senator mends fences with e-mailer in 9th grade

by Mary Jo Pitzl - Mar. 19, 2009 08:27 PM
The Arizona Republic

State Sen. Linda Gray got taken to school about etiquette when she chastised a high-school freshman for her poor writing skills, suggesting the student would have trouble passing the AIMS language test and is a poor learner.

Gray, R-Phoenix, bristled when she got an e-mail last week from a ninth-grader at Sunnyslope High School.

The student wanted to know why lawmakers cut the education budget, and questioned why "you don't cut any money from your budget?"

The e-mail was an unbroken string of sentences with no punctuation.

Gray noted this in her pointed response: "I have grave concerns on your ability to pass the AIMS language test," she wrote.

"Why didn't you take to (sic) time to write an e-mail with the proper punctuation? By your poorly written e-mail, your example tells me that all the money we have spent on your education shows a lack of learning on your part."

The e-mail ended up circulating among the student's friends and teachers at Sunnyslope, a local TV station and on the liberal Daily Kos blog.

Gray was even more mortified when she heard the student has special needs, something she learned when the girl's physical-education teacher sent the senator an e-mail.

Gray said she apologized via e-mail and invited the student to shadow her at the state Legislature. In reply, the student asked Gray to accompany her during a day at Sunnyslope High, which the senator agreed to do.

"I spoke harsh words to her," she said, attributing it to her frustration with how the recent state cuts to education are being portrayed as draconian reductions.

"I don't know what got into me that day."

The student did not immediately respond to a request for comment.