Pubdate: Sun, 10 Jun 2007 Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB) Copyright: 2007 Winnipeg Free Press Contact: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502 Note: By The Grades 5 and 6 students from Room 16 at Norquay School. WHAT THE KIDS OF NORQUAY SCHOOL TOLD MICHAELLE JEAN Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean met with Grades 5 and 6 students from Norquay School at the Graffiti Gallery last Tuesday, where two girls in Room 16 read her a letter asking for help to make their neighbourhood safe. Dear Governor General WE are writing as a concerned group of grades 5 and 6 students from Norquay School in Point Douglas. We are experiencing numerous problems in our neighbourhood that are making us feel very unsafe. As a class, we were discussing personal safety issues with our teacher. From this discussion, a lot of our feelings and our concerns were heard. With the help of our principal and our teacher we discovered that we have the voice and the power to speak about issues that are very important to us and our community. We hope you will listen to our concerns and help us in any way possible to make our community a safer place to live. We have prioritized and summarized the most important issues that are affecting us in the Point Douglas neighbourhood. These issues are physical assaults, verbal assaults, personal safety, drugs, gangs and theft. These are the key problems we really want your help and support with, to make changes in our community. We are concerned about the physical assaults that we are experiencing in our neighbourhood. Here are some of the issues we are dealing with: people using bear mace, beating kids up, bullying the young and the old, hitting, punching, kicking, pushing, throwing rocks at people and even animal cruelty. We want these things to change in our neighbourhood now! Here are some complaints that we have about verbal assaults in our neighbourhood. There are a lot of older kids making threats that are making the younger kids and the adults scared. Some of these kids try to encourage us to fight and threaten to beat us up if we don't fight. These kids also threaten to beat us up if we don't give them our money. It really bothers us that these same kids call elderly people names for no reason. Verbal assaults make for a negative atmosphere. Personal safety is an issue that we would like to talk about. There are often teenagers walking around the area scaring us with pit bulls. Some kids interfere with our outdoor games after school hours. They take over our game or take our equipment from us. Sometimes we don't feel safe in our own homes, as kids throw rocks or eggs at our houses and vehicles. The neighbourhood doesn't feel safe because there is broken glass, needles, evidence of drugs and shotgun shells left lying around on the ground, sidewalk, streets and parks. When we see certain people in the area we go back into our homes, our yards and our friends' houses or turn around and go back the other way so we don't have to face them. We would like some action to be taken regarding these issues. One problem we have in the area is that there are too many drugs. There are many places and streets around the neighbourhood that are known to have people selling drugs. Older kids are not only selling drugs but trying to give out drugs. We're upset because these kids are selling drugs, giving out drugs and doing drugs at places where we're supposed to feel safe. We are approached by older kids to hold their drugs. We are worried that drugs can interfere with children and youth getting an education. Another problem with drugs in the neighbourhood is all the crack houses and abandoned houses where these kids hang out. We also have lots of used needles left around the neighbourhood, which is very unsafe. Drugs are a big problem that we need help with. We are concerned about the gangs in the Point Douglas area. We are worried about that fact that these people are carrying around bats, knives and other dangerous things. We are also worried about kids that might get beaten up by the gangs. We don't like that our neighbourhood is full of graffiti markings from the gangs in the area. We are concerned that the gangs will offer younger kids drugs. The change we would really like to see regarding the gangs in the area is to make sure people stop selling drugs around local stores and parks. Any help you could provide us with would be appreciated. Here are some of the complaints that the kids in this neighbourhood have about theft. Some of the older kids in the neighbourhood steal younger kids' money, sports equipment and bikes. There are times when we see people driving recklessly around our area in stolen vehicles and we're worried someone is going to get hurt. We are fed up with not being allowed into stores without an adult or guardian present because other kids steal. We are frustrated with the theft in the area. In conclusion, we would like to express how these issues affect us and the change that we would like to see for the Point Douglas area. We thought you needed to know that we are scared of the people who are making bad choices in the neighbourhood. Sometimes we are so scared we feel the need to bring our younger siblings inside when we see negative behaviour around us. The bad choices kids are making really upset us. Sometimes we feel so frustrated because we don't feel safe walking around our neighbourhood. We are often afraid that if we do or say something, that these kids will retaliate. We like living in Point Douglas, but sometimes we feel so mad that we want to move out of the neighbourhood. We're livid, we're nervous, we're terrified, and we're sad! We want change for our neighbourhood! We would like to have more police officers in our community so they can get rid of the gangs, the drugs and the drug houses. We want our community to be drug free. We want the laws regarding graffiti and the selling of spray paint to kids to be tougher so that our neighbourhood won't look so awful. We also want to see tougher laws dealing with the selling and using of bear mace. We want to see the houses in the area fixed up and to have nice fences. We want our community centre to be a safe place to play and have fun. We would like programs like the Boys' and Girls' Club to continue and to have more activities for kids to participate in, in this area. We want our parks to be clean, drug-free and safe for us to play at. Most importantly, we want to walk around in our neighbourhood and feel confident! Thank you for taking the time to listen to our concerns. We would appreciate your support regarding these serious issues in our neighbourhood. If you could help us make some positive changes for our neighbourhood, we would be very grateful. We look forward to hearing a response from you in the near future. The Grades 5 and 6 students from Room 16 at Norquay School. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake