To the editor: Here we go again. Martin O’Shea has filed yet another lawsuit against our board of education, this time to open a confidentiality clause in the lawsuit of a former employee. A confidentiality clause. It keeps going through my head: It is a confidentiality clause. Last time, you’ll recall, Mr. O’Shea cost us $85,000 as he filed three successive unsuccessful lawsuits to get handwritten notes of a board executive session. Executive sessions, like confidentiality clauses, are private, and are held to discuss things like specific employees, negotiations, and other topics that could embarrass individuals or harm the board’s position if made public. At $85,000 one would think the handwritten notes were a product of DaVinci or Jefferson, and held historical value, like the Magna Carta or Declaration of Independence. Nope, just some notes scribbled by someone like you or me. Heck, if their protection cost our board $85,000, and the opposing side an additional $85,000, they are likely the most over-valued papers in world history. Well, this time, according to your Sept. 21 edition, Mr. O’Shea has dropped a rather inexpensive type of filing in order to go to a more costly Superior Court case. For what? More private stuff. I don’t get it. Does Mr. O’Shea have something against the taxpayers of this town? There are only 4,400 students enrolled in West Milford schools. His last antic cost each student nearly $20 apiece. The U.S. Census Bureau says West Milford’s 80 square miles are home to about 28,000 people, so Mr. O’Shea’s recent suit cost each person man, woman and child about $3. That’s $12 for my family of four. How much will his new bit of fun cost us each? The board in recent months hired a new principal at $95,000 and two teachers worth about $45,000 apiece. So, Mr. O’Shea’s $85,000 worth of continual discontent has cost the board of education one or two educators in the past couple of years. When you read “board of education,” think “my taxes at work, teaching my kids.” Maybe $85,000 would have paid the salary for Officer Blacksmith, the former high school resource officer. These costly-to-you-and-me proceedings are bad enough, but does Mr. O’Shea foot the bill for these legal wranglings, or is he just a stooge for local media outlets looking to set a precedent? The publisher of the paper Mr. O’Shea writes for got red in the face and blustery when I asked if they paid his bills, yet he did not deny it. So, I think we have a right to know Who pays Mr. O’Shea’s frivolous lawsuit costs? You and I, dear reader, cover for the board of ed, but does Mr. O’Shea pay his own costs, or are they picked up by multi-million-dollar newspaper groups, the same papers in which local businesses advertise to reach our township residents? If you advertise in them, and they pay Mr. O’Shea’s legal bills, you pay legal costs for both sides. Congratulations. Regardless, I have a serious request: Please, Mr. O’Shea, just stop. Take a moment. Go fishing, perhaps. Are all these proceedings really worth the cost? Even if you win, who benefits? Are West Milford students really better off, will they compete at a higher level, earn more, go to better colleges, succeed in ways that would be impossible if you did not pry into these private things? If the answer is “no,” then please, get a little perspective and cut it out. Jon Sherwood Newfoundland