Editor,
Coach Locksley is being locked out of work for 10 days for his attack on a fellow coach, and his paycheck will be docked about $29,000. He is getting away pretty good for an open physical assault.
If a classroom teacher had assaulted a student as Locksley did, he or she would be gone permanently, and probably would spend some time in the Metro Detention Center.
I was thrown into the MDC and assaulted by UNM campus cops three years ago for speaking out at a symposium about nuclear warheads.
Plus, I was banned from campus for two years for being too violent. Compare that to Locksley, who is still around for a far greater crime, and getting paid, too.
Also, Locksley keeping his job and losing some money, which is an amount far greater than many people working in classroom education in New Mexico make in a year, is a far larger crime.
For instance, our Albuquerque Public Schools assistants make less than half what Locksley will lose in 10 days, working hard all year long to help our young people learn and achieve something in life. They provide a much more vital service to society than all the football coaches UNM hires, in my opinion.
Consider also about 60 percent of the professional faculty in higher education in New Mexico at schools like UNM and CNM and other state colleges and universities. Many hold Ph.D.s while teaching year-round and are paid less in a year than Locksley will lose for a 10-day suspension. Is this not a greater crime?
UNM and the state of New Mexico have made clear what their priorities are.
Along with this, when reading statements this weekend by Gov. Richardson that he wants to protect education from budget cuts in the special legislative session in Santa Fe going on now, one has to laugh again.
This is the governor who told us for years he was not running for president while he was and milking the state treasury with lucrative kickback schemes to finance what was not his run for president.
Gov. Richardson and the Legislature and the regents like to overlook crimes by their friends. But they have set up an instructional structure where entertainers — like coaches — make millions and can get away with physical assaults while people who work hard and honestly to educate our students and keep our society safe are paid pennies.
This is justice in New Mexico.
Robert L. Anderson
UNM alumnus
