Why Does The School Board Consider The New Life Homeless Center For Veterans A Direct Threat To Students At Central High School?
It's not like it's not across the street from the police station. Are they making a statement about the effectiveness and readiness of the Springfield Police Department?
4 comments:
If it involves Larry Rice, then I bet Messenger has a thing or two to say.
While I am 100% behind Larry Rice's mission to help those in need there have been valid questions raised about the safety at his facilities.
I think it's very responsible for the school board to take their stance on this issue because safety of the students has to be their #1 priority. Given the people who need Larry Rice's help (and don't get me started on the fact our society doesn't care for our most in need) there is a viable likelyhood of violence. True, if someone at a Rice facility wanted to harm children they could find a way to get to them. However, it's reasonable not to make that access as easy as it would be with this new facility.
Mike Schilling's letter to the editor last week suggested a reasonable solution to the fuss over Larry Rice's plan to set up a social services center for homeless military veterans in the former Social Security Administration building on Jefferson Avenue.
Require Rice to station two armed security guards as greeters/screeners inside the entrance, just like Social Security officials had in place for the past many years of operation there.
That should relieve the safety concerns of the Central High School parents and others who oppose Rice's plan on the grounds it would be a public-safety threat.
Rice could probably get grant funds from Homeland Security to pay for the guards, and both sides would be happy.
Here is the correct link to Schilling's letter.
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