Editor’s Note: All of the following are excerpts from some of the 19 submissions we received in response to an article printed on Feb. 12 by James Baron, titled “Fatherly Words About Our Cesspool: You Foul Den of Miscreants! What Have You Done to My Daughter?”

You have found the situation wasn’t right for your daughter and you responded; we’ll respect that. Sorry it didn’t work out, but we did not betray you. We gave you everything we promised, down to the new experience that apparently you never prepared your daughter for.
Altaira Dearborn
graduate student, MCD biology

I was very disappointed with James Baron’s opinion piece about UCSB’s failure to monitor his daughter’s life. He wrote, “I often wonder where the Andrew Fastows, O.J. Simpsons and David Attiases come from.”

My answer to you, Mr. Baron, is that they come from broken families.
Julia Hajdu, UCSB graduate

Miss Baron is twenty years old – a big girl who should be able to handle things on her own. But for a moment let’s assume that she was a victim of unfortunate circumstances.

Recent psychological research has shown that many girls often choose a guy to resemble their father. If this is true, then it says a lot about your character, Pops. The angry tone of your article and domineering statements you make go on to further prove you to be a conservative, authoritarian and condescending person – not a very good father.
Dmitriy Pindrik
junior, business economics

I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the guy’s daughter. No, I wasn’t sorry because I envisioned a virginal, drug-free, sparkly-white young valedictorian converted into an abused, suicidal addict. I felt sorry for James Baron, his faulty line of reasoning and his daughter, who sounds a few cards short of a full deck.

First he pulls his daughter out of UCSB after deciding it’s some sort of modern-day Sodom or Gomorrah, then he publicly expresses his moral outrage. I have a suggestion for you, if you’re done embarrassing your offspring: Consider that the problem may be with daddy’s little girl, not the school she attended.
Colin Marshall
freshman, communications

I think it’s time that Baron take a long hard look at the choices his daughter made and consider the possibility that she may have associated with that kind of crowd because he didn’t prepare her to make choices that aren’t self-destructive.

Perhaps it is because of the “negative influence” of Baron’s tendency to scapegoat instead of accepting personal responsibility that his daughter has such an awful and atypical UCSB experience.
Ashley Doty
sophomore, psychology, law and society

With respect to the David Attias situation, I had the distinct displeasure of being a student at UCSB at the time of that tragedy. Mr. Attias’ behavior definitely should have raised some eyebrows prior to the incident. It’s a tragic situation that probably could have been avoided. In my personal opinion, though, partying and tolerance of strange behavior were not the problems, but rather one young man’s selfish decision that he had the right to end others’ lives and our court system’s subsequent failure to convict him of murder. I wish all the luck in the world to Mr. Baron and his daughter, and I applaud him for the courage to intervene and make what sounds like a smart decision on his daughter’s behalf.
Nate Weiss, UCSB graduate