Dr. Virginia Voinovich
Abraham Lincoln Traditional School
10444 N 39th Av
Phoenix, AZ 85051

Dr. Voinovich,

My son, Cameron Swann, informs me that Abraham Lincoln Traditional School has sent documents to his mother in Seattle that were not shared with me. As you know, I have sole legal custody of Cameron. In consequence, I regard this as an attempt by the school to undermine my relationship with my son and to interfere with his custody.

I will remind you that my son is a consistent presence on your own Principal’s List, an outstanding musician, a candidate for the National Junior Honor Society, etc. He has achieved a long list of academic and extra-curricular distinctions, all of them impressive. His greatest offense against the peace at Abraham Lincoln Traditional School consists of chattering in class. I expect this ex parte contact with Cameron’s mother consists of an attempt to curb his academic willfulness, but this is regarded as a vice only by school teachers. In the real world, intellectual independence is seen as an indispensible virtue. What I wish for you to understand is that, whatever the school’s motivations, in light of Cameron’s exceptional qualities of mind and character, they will seem spiteful and risible on the witness stand.

My expectation is that the Washington School District employs a legal counsel not so that it might intimidate tax-payers engaged in lawful free speech, but rather to limit the District’s exposure to lawsuits. For that reason, I have copied Mr. Shawn Miller on this letter.

Please indicate to me at once, in writing, that this behavior will not be repeated.


Greg Swann
03/22/04

cc: Shawn Miller, Legal Counsel, WESD