The disservice that has been done to parents of District 150 Schools

Imagine if the school board started a letter writing campaign, to ask parents to demand that police make sure that their children are safe on the streets as they travel back and forth to school and once they reached their neighborhoods. I bet the police union wouldn't like that.

Today, the Labor Representative for the Policemen’s Benevolent Labor Committee sent a letter into the Peoria Chronicle to urge citizens to do the following:

"... contact each school board member and oppose any action that would diminish the authority of the campus police department and urge them to improve the safety in the learning environment."

I find this dissension among agencies charged with the well being of our children very concerning, and I really wish that it could have been resolved in planning meetings - not aired out in a letter sent to local blog.

When August 22 rolls around and the SROs are in place, how can we feel that our students and teachers will be safe, when the Leader of the Policeman's Benevolent Labor Committee said they won't be?

I can't help but to wonder what is the opinion of Chief Security Officer, Greg Collins on this issue. Surely he is involved in the planning meetings. Considering he came on board recently - more than likely he understood the move to the SRO program (I would hope he did at least).

The District needs to do a public relations push ASAP, to make sure that the community understands the SRO program; and more importantly, so that parents will know that their children WILL be safe when August 22nd rolls around and they return to school.

As a parent, I would like to see the District clarify publicly how the program will work AND the chief security officer needs to reassure us that he trusts what is happening and is a part of the plan to make sure it works. Parents deserve to get some type of reassurance at this point.

Urban legend - the #150 Marauders

It’s interesting how getting information on District 150 school fights is almost like running down an urban legend.

About one week ago, I was exiting off of 74 at lower Knoxville Avenue. As we approached Glen Oak we heard and saw an un-marked Police car with siren blaring and lights flashing, zoom by. As it was just around the time school was letting out, we assumed they were headed to Peoria High School.

We saw the car turn off Knoxville onto Richmond, we drove slowly across Richmond, rubber necked down the street and didn’t see anything. We proceeded up Knoxville past the old Cub Foods, and we didn’t see anything there either. What is odd, is that I have been hearing people say that large fights took place that afternoon on Richmond and at the Old Cub Foods and pepper balls were dispersed.

I am having a hard time believing that with a Chief of Security as capable as Officer Collins that District 150 is letting their students maraud entire neighborhoods and Officer Collins wouldn’t have anything to say. If pepper balls were dispersed in the area of the school, with students present, he would have given a report on this – right?

I spoke earlier of Officer Collins neither confirming nor denying the reports of violence at last night's meeting. However, I am thinking that perhaps Officer Collins was at the meeting last night for the same reason I was, to see if parents would come forward with more information about the violence.

If children are being beat up and/or hassled on their way to and from school, why didn’t the parents of those children come to the BOE with their complaints? If neighborhoods around Peoria High School are being marauded, why didn’t the neighborhood come to the BOE with their complaints?

General Parker is the President of the Heart of Peoria Neighborhood Association. He and his wife, BOE Member, Rachael Parker live in the area of Peoria High School and are very active in the neighborhood. They both were at the BOE meeting and neither one of them spoke of receiving complaints from neighbors. As a matter of fact, if you go to the Heart of Peoria Neighborhood Association webpage, you will see the photo to the left, along with contact information.

I am bothered to hear people speaking of children with such disdain and I can’t help but wonder if some of the complaints of large groups of scary children are racially motivated. I also don’t like the component of people who didn't want Woodruff to close, implying that people from Peoria High are the problem. As I recall, Woodruff High School had fights and discipline issues just like Peoria High School, Manual and Richwoods. The propensity to fight appears to be District wide.

It was also very troubling for me to view Carl Cannon’s fashion police video. The uneasiness was heightened, when I saw my nephew in Mr. Cannon’s video being pulled to the side. My nephew is a good kid and he does not need the ELITE team to tell him how to behave or dress. He is a kid who is well taken care of; with a father who is gainfully employed and he does not wear baggy clothing to school. He was stopped by Mr. Cannon, at Manual, for wearing Birkenstocks. He was held up for .25 minutes, while Mr. Cannon continued to pull other children over and then he looked at him and said “oh yeah, you can go”. He was humiliated and it made me sad to hear that in his voice. He won't be happy about the fact that he is in a District 150 video, appearing to be disciplined.

Many clapped at the video presentation Mr. Cannon put on. I couldn’t, because it bothered me to see groups of children rounded up that way. It’s all just a little to close to racial profiling for me to cheer on the process. Oh well, I guess if it’s working, that’s more important than the humility of our young people.