MCHS neighbors ask for gate to be closed

MCHS neighbors ask for gate to be closed

May 19, 2001

HIGH-SCHOOL students walk through an opening in the fence around the MCHS campus last November. Neighbors say littering and drug-dealing are problems in the area.

by Aspen C. Emmett
Journal Staff Writer

In November, neighbors to Montezuma-Cortez High School complained to the District Re-1 school board about trash and disrespectful students just outside the school’s fence on the north end of the campus. This week, the same citizens returned to the board with the complaint that things are getting worse — with loud car stereos, defiant youths and the sale and use of drugs.

"It just seems like there’s more and more problems," said Debra Sheldon, who lives near MCHS. "There’s a lot more drug-dealing going on and it’s more and more blatant. This isn’t a trash issue any more. It’s a regular party scene."

Sheldon said citizens who live in the neighborhood are constantly having to confront the offending students and have even had to break up several fights. She blamed the situation on a walk-through in the fence at Fifth Street and South Linden. Walk-throughs and holes in the fence on Maple and Oak streets were also cited as troublesome.

"I’m here to ask you — to plead with you — to please close those openings," Sheldon said. "I think that’s what’s going to have to happen. Otherwise there’s going to have to be a paraprofessional person there to monitor their conduct."

But board members expressed concerns about closing off the walk-throughs and the "fairness of closing off access at one end of the campus and not another."

"We’ve got to have the capability of having access there for emergency reasons," said board President Steve Hinton. "As far as denying access through real gates, I can’t say we’re going to close off all that side. I’m not certain that that might (not) be somewhat of a safety hazard should we need to trot 1,000 students out the back of that building in short order and get them off campus. That might be a safety problem."

"We also have an open campus," said board member Jackie Fisher. "You cannot close part of the campus because you don’t want to deal with it — and then everyone else has to deal with it. That’s not fair, either."

Fisher also pointed out that some of the high-school students had made efforts to improve the area Sheldon was concerned about.

"You brought before us that there was a trash problem and disrespectful students. I was very proud of our student body that they took on a trash pick-up and they made it their responsibility.

"Now you’re bringing a different problem to us. I’m not minimizing that — I’m just saying I felt our students did an excellent job taking care of that problem and being responsible and concerned about community members."

Sheldon said she appreciated the trash clean-up but didn’t feel it was fair that the students causing the problems weren’t the ones responding to them.

"I thank you for doing that," she said. "But it’s always the good kids that pick up the trash — the ones that are on student council — and they’re the ones that get stuck with it. I feel sorry for them. I think some of these other kids need to be more accountable for their actions."

Hinton said the school would take a look at the spots in the fence where there were holes and attempt to address problems of maintenance.

"Let us have a look at our fence situation and if it is in disrepair . . .and if you need help on your city streets then you need to attend a city-council meeting," he said.

"Every year the school continues to need to be the police of all children," Hinton said. "Last year, traffic was a problem and it was our fault. We’re in the business of teaching kids and not watching them take their cars and go to lunch."

Assistant Cortez Police Chief Russ Johnson told the Journal that he believed the city and the school should share the responsibility of responding to the residents’ concerns.

"I think it’s probably a joint responsibility," Johnson said. "The kids are coming from the school into that area and once they leave the school grounds, they become our problem as well. If people are having a problem there, we’ll do everything we can to help them."