A CrimeView look at District 150 high schools

In an earlier post, I touted the benefits of after school clubs and extra curriculars. Sharon Crews raised the very important issue of student safety after leaving school property. Peoria Story reports that during the public comments section of the December 13th meeting of the Board of Education, Terry Knapp raised the following issue

...students walking home in the dark to the former Woodruff High School area from Peoria Central because activity buses apparently are not running.

To which Superintendent Lathan responded...

...the buses are running and students may choose to walk home.

Today, in the comments Sharon Crews raised the issue again:

Of course, I have a complaint about the transplanted Woodruff students. At the last board meeting Dr. Lathan responded to Terry's complaint that there were no activity buses to take kids home to the Woodruff area. She disagreed--said that the buses were available. However, I know for sure that buses were not available for the members of the PHS boys' swim team (those who were former Woodruff students). I don't know if anything has changed.

Then she counters that, by admitting...

There are so many after-school activities and events to which buses just couldn't possibly be available with so many differing time schedules. Not all these kids have cars or families who have cars available for all this transporting. My guess is that many kids just plain cannot participate because of transportation. During vacation the PHS swim team practices twice a day--probably no buses at all.

...the overall number of students who participate in extra-curricular activities (even sports) is way, way down.

The general public seems to blame the schools for so much. The societal ills that we are facing are of such a magnitude that there is no way the schools alone can make all the difference. The schools can't control what is happening on the streets and in the lives of the children who live in Peoria. All they can do is the best they can with who shows up.

As illustrated by the Crime View Statistics below, our children are living in a war zone. While the schools could certainly do more to provide after school programs to reach a broader audience, they can only do so much to keep our children and families safe as they come and go.

The level of security our children and their parents feel may have an impact on the level of participation. The statistics below are from the CrimeView Community and for the time period of November 1, 2010 - December 26, 2010 (click image to enlarge):

Updated: HatTip Anonymous...