Residents
and business owners from the North Winton Village neighborhood say they’re fed
up with some East High students, who, instead of going to school, spend the day
using marijuana and cavorting in the neighborhood.
Residents
clean-up garbage and drug paraphernalia from their yards, driveways, and
doorways daily, they said at a neighborhood meeting last night that included
Rochester police officers and officials from the school district.
Some
residents even brought empty small plastic baggies used to carry pot and cell-phone
photos they said they took of students getting high to show the police.
Area
business owners and landlords say they are fed up with the problems, too. The McDonald’s
on the corner of East Main Street and Culver Road across East no longer allows
students ages 19 and under to eat inside the restaurant during school hours, said
owner Louis Buono.
One
apartment-building owner said he has invested more than $200,000 to upgrade his
property, but his tenants are intimidated by the activities of the young people
who hang around outside the building. He said he had to install metal security
barriers on the front doors, and that he’s installing a $5,000 security system
to prevent students from breaking in.
“We want the
kids to be safe and in school,” says Mary Coffey, co-chair of the North Winton
Village Association. “But it’s not our responsibility to track them down and
keep them in school.”
East has
been identified by the State Education Department as a low-performing school,
and district officials are spending thousands of dollars on remedial programs.
But some residents at last night’s meeting scoffed at that, saying the students
aren’t performing because many aren’t in school.
Rochester
School Board President Malik Evans, who was at the meeting, said the district
is clamping down hard on truancy. Attendance is now supposed to be taken at the
beginning of every period, he said, and school officials will be more
aggressive in tracking down missing students.
But Evans
said the district doesn’t know if the students in North Winton Village’s case
are leaving school or not showing up at all.
“If they
[students] were at East High and left school, then we’ve got a problem with
East,” Evans said. “But if we’re dealing with kids who didn’t go to school at
all, that’s a different problem.”
But even
though residents said they are getting some cooperation from school officials
and police, the combination of drugs and truancy is not going to be easy to
eradicate.
And even if
police officers arrest students for possession of marijuana, there are few
consequences. Students ages 16 and under would only be charged with a violation
and released, police said.
This article appears in Show Time: The Rochester Fringe Festival.
