Earlier this month an article was written about police resource officers in the Mesa Public Schools, I was wondering if anyone heard one voice….Did anyone hear what Deb Duvall, Mesa School Superintendent had to say? The concern is the loss of 7 Mesa schools police resource officers - and rightly so.Last year, the MPS Board paid $250,000 to help pay for 14 officers. However, the federal grants used ran out. The property tax would have resolved the problem…..we all know what happened there.The officers were placed in Jr. High School’s according to Mesa police Interim Chief Fowler, five years ago because of the Columbine massacre. The result - violence decreased in the schools with the visible deterrent, developing a trust brought significant benefits. Without this proactive measure it becomes difficult with no pre-established relationship.Without the officers on campus the police department and school must rely on a phone call from schools which delay response times. The city cut $470,000 that would have gone to the school resource officers paid by the property tax…had it passed.There is more to a SRO than meets the eye - it’s not a case of "hanging around" waiting for something to happen. Some of the responsibilities include:- investigate crimes on campus- investigate incidents involving students off campus- mediate student conflicts - conduct traffic control- teach classes on law enforcement- teach classes on citizenship- act as counselors- role models for students- crime preventionAn SRO is an important ingredient that bring education and law abiding citizenship together.I’m with Superintendent Duvall, our children deserve the protection and benefits. It would be a crime not to!
Archive for June 28th, 2006Walters AccountableJune 28th, 2006, 2:18 pm by SharonFor those that do not trust Mesa City Council members, I hope that you read an article this past week that revealed some details of a recent city council meeting.Vice Mayor Claudia Walters drew attention to additional revenue sought with the potential of bringing in funds from new bonds proposed for the city. One of her concerns - the citizens of Mesa in view of the result of the recent property tax failure in March.Accountability and a view of the "big picture" in relationship to the Mesa community such as this is needed. These concerns may have been discussed in times past but no publicly. Bringing conversations like this to the public will be important toward changing the mind-sets of those whose negative comments most likely come because they do not see the full picture of a process. When one has not been included in hearing or reading about those discussions assumptions are made.The news media helps as well, not only reporting what will "sell" but also reporting threads of credible truth so as not to undermine our government whether it be local or afar. I was very happy to see the report given from this council meeting! Getting it RightJune 28th, 2006, 10:15 am by elburtonI wanted to take the time to thank the Editorial staff at the East Valley Tribune for the piece they wrote in Tuesday’s edition. Now I know that the content of the piece was not on a subject near and dear to Mesa, and I know that this Blog was designed to address issues in Mesa, but, when our local paper gets it right, they need to hear from their subscribers that their words are not just dying a miserable death in a land fill. The piece was titled, "We want the bad guys caught before they act," and it is right on the money. Since the events of 911 we have seen this country polarized, we are at war with an enemy who has no creed, no country of origin, no border… they are here and everywhere. This war is a perfect storm of sorts for those who dislike the current administration; it provides them with the ability to politicize it to their advantage. Case in point the content of the editorial I mentioned at the opening. In it the Editorial staff points out that the arrest of the seven men in Miami who were plotting attacks on American soil. There are those among us who believe that these arrests were more of a matter of convenience and timing rather than a serious strike against terror. They claim that these men were nothing more than a group of disgruntled, uneducated keystone cop styled wannabe terrorists. They advance the idea that the Bush Administration is making a mountain out of a mole hill with this one. The Tribune Editorial staff got it right, they reminded us that the 19 men who boarded planes and flew them into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and attempted to hit another target in Washington DC (if it were not for the brave men and women of United Flight 93 they might have) were nothing more than hapless idiots that nobody took seriously except a few FBI agents, one or which was located here in Arizona. The Tribune Editorial staff gets two thumbs up and a snap from this reader and contributor for recognizing that today’s idiot could become tomorrow’s biggest mass murderer and politicizing any aspect of this war on terror by either side serves nothing more than to further divide a country already standing on the edge of a vast valley of discontent. |