To the editor:

I see that Jamey Murphy is a puppet for his father, James Murphy, just like his sister Kathleen Eardley was and fellow Tesson Ferry Township Republican Club member Lori Trakas is.

Every year, the elder Murphy decides to spew his interpretation of the rights and wrongs with the Mehlville School District and it often centers around a pivotal time that the Mehlville Board of Education needs to make an important decision about the future direction of the district.

As Jamey Murphy contemplates making his next step in the political aspirations his father has bestowed upon him, a last-minute work commitment in Cape Girardeau conveniently popped up, thus avoiding any conflict and missing a board vote on placing a tax-rate increase on the November ballot.

Time stands still for no one.

So Jamey Murphy misses the board vote, yet takes exception to Superintendent Chris Gaines stating his belief that he wavered on his support for a tax-rate increase as a political decision versus a governance decision. I don’t think that was a bullying statement at all — it was a correct educated guess.

Jamey, it’s time to be a leader, not a puppet for your father — represent your community, your neighbors and what you claim to be your children’s future school district.

Like I told your sister in March 2013, let me paraphrase the old Oldsmobile commercial: “This is not your father’s school district.”

It is your children’s, and its solid future is a part of your decision-making.

I am a 20-year resident who was an active Mehlville parent for 15 of those years and cares about the Mehlville School District.