Dear Editor,

I heard about the state ethics commission and their ruling about gifts given to teachers by students. This is one of the most asinine things I have ever heard.

I have yet to meet a teacher who became a millionaire through gifts from children. On the contrary, I know many who are close to the poverty level because of all the money they spend giving to students who do not have the things they need.

If this is all the ethics commission has to do, I suggest they be disbanded and their salaries given to education.

I taught for 40 years in this county and received many thoughtful gifts, and never once did I even remotely consider how much one of them cost, or that they were given as a bribe or to corrupt me.

It seems to me as though the ethics commission should deal with things of importance and get out of the lives of children and their love and respect for people who give their lives and finances to help students become lawyers, doctors and part of the general workforce.

Clifford Neeley, Clanton