BUCKING THE SYSTEM: COMMUNITY BETTERMENT INCLUDES WHOLE AS WELL AS PARTS

I visited the Cape Girardeau county mapping and planning division this week, and as far as I could tell, there was no area labeled "bad side" on our city map.

The Clippard Elementary lottery controversy has had parents and administrators drawing proverbial lines in the dirt recently.

For those who haven't heard, Clippard has at least 21 more students registered for kindergarten than the school can accommodate, and the board of education set a policy to hold lottery drawings to decide which students attend the school's two kindergarten classes and which students are bused to the nearest school or schools with openings.

First, let me say I empathize with the parents who wanted their kindergartner to attend school in the same building as an older sibling, and with those who are upset because they want more than two weeks to acclimate their children to their first school, and with those who thought the "first-come, first-served" policy was in effect.

Those parents have what I believe are valid concerns, and I would share them if my child were one of those possibly displaced by the lottery.

I have less sympathy, however, for parents who simply "oppose busing" because THEIR child is the one who might be bused, and absolutely none for the parents who don't want their children in a school "on a bad side of town."

That's an actual quote I heard on a local news broadcast this week. A parent had decided that only Clippard was good enough for HER child, and other schools on a "bad" side of town would place her child in excessive danger.

I want to know which schools that parent is referring to and what constitutes a bad side of town? And what factors make her child's safety any more important than the safety of the X-hundred other children already attending school in the neighborhoods in question?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that parent was referring to the south side, and specifically to neighborhoods surrounding Washington and May Greene Elementary schools. Why these neighborhoods? Because those are the ones that seem to have higher percentages of minority residents, lower rent levels and property values and higher crime rates.

How dare anyone judge these schools, neighborhoods or the people who live in them without attending (or at least visiting) the schools, living (or again, visiting) in the neighborhoods, or at least knowing the people who live there?

A lot of good people live in these neighborhoods, and they get offended when people try to degrade them, their homes and schools based on a little knowledge and a lot of hearsay. Quite frankly, there's nothing wrong with the south side that a little care, a few clean-up projects and a lot of economic opportunities wouldn't help. And the quality of education in the two schools is equal to that in any other school in the district.

District administrators have at least two choices to resolving the Clippard controversy: Move or hire a teacher and create space at the school for another kindergarten classroom; or devise a fair system for choosing which students will attend Clippard and make appropriate transportation arrangements for those that will have to attend school elsewhere.

I'm not saying the lottery is the best system: That's for the administrators and the parents to decide. I am saying I don't appreciate the mudslinging endured by home- and business-owners, teachers and others who are constantly trying to improve these neighborhoods.

Groups like the Haarig Area Development Association and the May Greene area restoration committee are working hard for neighborhood and community betterment, not neighborhoods that are "better than" others in the community. These efforts deserve support, not more negativity.

~Tamara Zellars Buck is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.