On The Silly Side by Jimmy Del Ponte

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

Kids today can wear just about anything they want to at school – when I was at Somerville High School in the late 60’s and early 70’s, we had a ‚Äúdress code.‚Äù No jeans, or dungarees, as we called them back then. We were at the height of the ‚Äúhippie‚Äù era – all the boys had long hair and all the girls wore mini-skirts. Some of us even wore beads‚Ķreally! Those that could grow sideburns grew them.

We also had many things to be angry about – and at the top of the list was the war in Vietnam. There was always the underlying threat of ‚Äúif you flunk out of high school, you will be drafted.‚Äù Today’s school kids have the threat of not graduating because of MCAS hanging over them.

By George P. Hassett

A 14-year-old boy was stabbed walking home from class at the Winter Hill Community School on Tuesday, the knife missing his lung by inches, according to the boy’s father.

Two weeks before the incident the boy found a threatening note on his desk at school that said, "I’ll kill you" and was signed "MS-13," the father said. School officials and a police officer assigned to the building were alerted to the threat but, according to the father, did little to prevent it.

By George P. Hassett

You may not know him but if you live in Somerville he has probably called your home as early as 6:45 a.m. to warn you of snow emergencies, street closings or busted sewer pipes under Somerville Avenue.

His voice has become part of the Somerville way of life and now a tribute to Tom Champion, director of communications for the city and the voice of 90 percent of the 268 mass notification calls known as Connect-CTY, has found its way into cyberspace.