Teen’s message was for hope, not harm

Dear friends, family and community,

I have always known my kids totally rock! So the fact that the world discovered my daughter’s heart and talents should not have been a surprise to me, but it was - so many people have had great things to say about our girl. Yes, we are very proud of her, but we were proud of her before her essay, too. However, our pride is not the primary intent of this letter.

A draft of Waverli’s Nov. 13 essay was provided to Palmer High School staff prior to its publication and the issues in it were taken very seriously by school staff. We have quality schools with caring and intelligent administrators and teachers. To their credit, Mat-Su School District teachers were chief among those who encouraged Waverli to pursue the concept of getting the essay published. Additionally, please know that the kids at the school are great people. The few that said things they should not have undoubtedly learned the words from adults. These youth do not need more anger directed at them, but instead need education. They also need to see tolerance, forgiveness and grace modeled to them.

We do not want to let these negative events define us, our school, nor our community. None of this was meant to put the school in a negative light and we hope that instead our school and community become known as a place where intelligent, thoughtful discussion of difficult topics and is honored. The bottom-line is when the school was made aware of these issues they sprang into action. We are proud that Waverli played a role in making these issues known to the school and in inspiring a wider, honest, open dialog about issues of intolerance in our world. The essay was meant to be a message of hope, not of harm.

The way people have opened their hearts to her is a blessing to us. Thank you all and may God bless our Valley, our state, our country and our world.

Wendy E. Rainey

Proud mom of Waverli Rainey