Mayor’s Row……………………by Ned Mitchell

            A dose of reality hit home with me last week when I visited a local high school and stopped in my tracks at the front door entrance.  You see I have been going in and out of this school for years during my routine delivery trips.  I deliver printed products to a variety of schools and over the years I have noticed fences with security barbed wire at the top to simple notices requiring visitors to report to the office starting to appear.

            This one particular school has taken the precaution to lock down the school and require visitors to step in front of a security camera and identify themselves and the reason for their visit before the door will be unlocked allowing them entrance to the school.  Of course I don’t fault the school board or administrators; they do after all have to protect the kids and employees.  It looked like a very good system and a very good idea to me.

            The dose of reality came when I realized that we no longer live in a society where kids are safe at school.  We live in a day when anything can and does happen from mass killings to threats against staff and administrators by the children or their parents.  It appears to me that we no longer have parents who are willing to practice the art of “tough love” or simply put, they don’t have the backbone to say no to their kids.  True, it is easier to just go along and say yes to everything.  It is easier when a kid gets caught doing something wrong to agree with the kid and blast those in authority who caught the little punk in the first place.  This seems to be a generational problem with each generation spawning a whole new generation of kids who can do no wrong.

            So here we are in 2008 with schools in a lock down situation but we did not just get that way overnight.  In my 30 some years as Mayor of Sesser I have watched a lot of kids grow up and become adults.  Those that had parents who cared where their kids were at and who they hung out with seem to have model citizens who are now parents practicing that same “tough love” that their parents extended to them.

            I have watched our police call parents when their children were caught out after curfew only to have the parent or parents coming screaming into city hall blaming everyone but their child for the violation.  We do have a rather strict curfew in Sesser that says during the school year kids under age 16 cannot be running lose in town after 7:00 pm.  Of course there are exceptions of a young person walking from one house to another across town and we flexible to those situations, but for the most part the city council several years ago voted to toughen up the curfew simply because a few young punks were harassing some adults to like to walk for exercise at night.

            A local newspaper over the weekend did a whole section on campus safety at area colleges and high schools and it was alarming to read.  Here we sit in Southern Illinois and the school violence that we read about in the cities is slowly creeping into our area.  In my talks with one area school superintendent discussing the topic of discipline he told me there is basically no such thing in our schools anymore.  He further explained that if administrators or teachers to discipline a child the next day the parents show up with the child and an attorney preparing to sue the school.  Of course the courts are another whole problem themselves in allowing such frivolous lawsuits so there is no safety net there either.  My opinion is that we need legislation in this state that requires folks who file frivolous lawsuits pay the court costs and attorney’s fees if they lose their case.  This would eliminate a whole bunch of nonsense and clear up the court system so they could concentrate on providing justice for victims of crime.

            The solution to this whole problem however is a rather simple one.  It falls in the laps or on the backs, whichever you prefer, of the parents of these future punks that we are allowing to actually run our school systems and society in general.  You and I as parents have a huge responsibility but most of our parents instilled in us the difference between right and wrong.  We have fewer kids in our area schools now than we did when I was in school.  We never had any doors locked or even signs posted and did not need any warnings to visitors or kids.  If we got out of line the paddle came out sometimes used and sometimes not but we all figured out there was a price to pay not only at school but also at home for our actions.  You know something else; we respected our teachers, parents, ministers, neighbors, police and everyone we came in contact with. 

            I have several friends who teach in private and religious schools and several friends who send their kids to these schools and they all tell me that discipline is not a problem at their respective schools.  I wonder why that is?

            Herbert Hoover while running for President in 1928 campaigned on the promise of “a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage”.  Those that lived in that era and those of us who study history know that whole concept did not turn out so well.  I can remember my grandmother Mitchell saying once that “Herbert Hoover made a democrat out of her.”  So even though Sesser continues to get nationwide press coverage in major newspapers and now a St. Louis television station on our golf cart idea, we are not promising a golf cart in every garage let alone the chicken in every pot.  There are too many vegetarians amongst us these days and that would not be politically correct!

            Members of the Franklin County Farm Bureau met at the Sesser Opera House Café in the upstairs Woll Room for their meeting last week.  They enjoyed a delicious meal and a little bit of history about the grand old theatre.  We welcome any groups to visit with us.  The room is free for meetings like this and we enjoy meeting new folks and telling the Sesser story every chance we get.  To take a tour just call 625-6300.

            IN sick bay this week we have Carl Allen who has been released from a St. Louis hospital and is now at home resting.  Home Pitts has had heart surgery and is also home resting.  Patty Hutson Tait also had heart surgery, wait a minute, she is my age!  Kay Styve is being transferred to an area facility from a St. Louis hospital after breaking her leg in a fall.  I am sure these folks would appreciate a card, phone call, or visit to help them heal up a little faster!