Dear Editor:
The streets around Dickinson High School need help. The students take them over on their way to and from school. They carry loud music box stereos, curse and yell. They also turn over residents trash cans. They come out onto the streets at lunch hour too and sit on residents’ front steps and throw all their trash, cans and bottles on our steps and sidewalks and streets; it’s just a mess. Pavonia Avenue between Chestnut and Baldwin gets it bad as well as Chestnut and Newark Avenues. The streets around the area are littered with trash, broken glass and cans; it’s just a shame. The corner of Newark and Chestnut has sidewalks just so dirty and stained with gum it’s gross and needs to be replaced. The students are so nasty when you ask them not to sit on your steps and not to throw their trash on the streets and sidewalks, what’s a person to do?
I see some police in the area, but they see the students sitting on people’s steps to their homes, and they do nothing. I hate to call the police for litterbugs and by the time they arrive, students have gone away. Students should be kept on school property during school hours which includes lunchtime. This would keep them off the streets and out of trouble too. I have called the school to complain but nothing gets done. I have called the Board of Education, and nothing gets done. They say to call the police. The Board of Education says that they have to let students out onto the streets for lunch because they do not the facilities on school property to feed them all. Well, the answer to that would be to build another school somewhere else or expand the lunch areas at this one. This could be a nice area but the students spoil it. At this age they should be old enough to act like adults, why don’t they? I feel like the quality of life for the residents around the school has been reduced because of these students. What can we do? We need some help here. During lunchtime you can’t even walk on the sidewalks because they all congregate and just stand there, and you can’t even get around them without them being nasty and making rude comments to you or even blocking you on purpose. This is just out of control.
Can you help? What we need is for the students to remain on school property for the entire school day including lunchtime and for police patrol on foot before and after school and for a cleanup of the area to get rid of the trash and glass in the streets and sidewalks and for new sidewalks to get rid of the gum stained ones.
Thank you.
A concerned resident of Pavonia Avenue