Sure, do a better job of integrating the Internet with your publication's letters to the editor section in print. It will make your readers happier, and demonstrate to your community that you support the free exchange of ideas. The basic problem with most letters to the editor operations is, of course, lack of physical space.
Most newspaper editors can publish only a fraction of the letters they receive.
The letters page editor combs through the regular onslaught of reader mail and selects the best ones for publication in the print edition. In your print edition, include contextual links to the online letters to the editor. On the topic of violence in local high schools, you might publish one or two of the best letters. For each and every letter published online, allow online readers to click and fill out a form to post a follow-up note to the original letter. Each letter then has the potential to spawn its own discussion thread.