Your Roundup

Looks like the big city crap is seeping into Payson. A stabbing by a 14 year old kid?? So what if it was off school grounds, it's still school kids involved. Makes me want to cry.

Why did a 14 year old have a knife at school? I am sure he didn't run home and get it.
We need rules. A dress code, closed campus and no back packs.
Oh yes, and books for the students, so that when they are given homework that requires reading, there are more than 6 books for all the classes that are taking that particular subject.

I know the mother of the boy who was stabbed. My reactions, when told about it the day after - "What's this world coming to?"

I'm with you, Dean. Doesn't matter that it happened off campus. It was still during school hours.

Pat, it may well be time that campus is closed. That will cost us (taxpayers), but I'm for it. They do have a dress code. It's not well-enforced, but they do have a reasonable one.

If they would get rid of backpacks, they would have to provide enough lockers for the students. When the junior high became the middle school, they took out all lockers. There are currently not nearly enough lockers at the high school for all students. Those that are available are first come, first served, with upper classmen getting first chance. And it costs $ for the student who wants a locker.

Don't get me wrong. I don't like that the kids have to carry backpacks all the time. I remember picking my kids' backpacks up and they were heavy! Let's think of the health of the kids' backs, too.

I'm sure there is a zero tolerance policy for knives, just as there is for guns. Question becomes, how adequately are the policies enforced? How best should they be enforced.

I don't think any thing is enforced, not the dress code, no alcohol, drug free, and tobacco free.
Back packs are unhealthy for the kids backs. I read all the time about the fits Drs are throwing on all the weight the kids are carrying, and the damage it is doing to them. The reason I think they should not be allowed is because of what you can put in them to bring to school . Drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and do you realize how large a pistol or knives can be carried in one?
The price they put in the paper for a fence is ridiculous. The whole property does not have to be fenced. Not the parking lot or the whole west end of the property. Kids do not need to go to their car once they are in school. I think the last sports person that was kicked off a team was because of going to thier car and getting a drink of alcohol during school hrs.
I was looking today as I drove around the school and there is a lot of it already fenced, or buildings as barriers.
They have been using the excuse of the cafeteria being to small for a closed campus, well build a bigger one. Put in lockers. The fence, lockers and the cafeteria is certainly worth even one life.
Have the volunteer police patrol and first time someone is caught outside a warning. The second time kick them out of school, they aren't there to learn anyway.
Please don't say it is against thier rights to be fenced it. Untill 18 and/or self supporting they have no rights.

Pat, I don't disagree. Historically, it takes incidents like this stabbing to provoke change.

The parents of current students should be making noise, demanding change. Whether they will, or not, remains to be seen. I believe that there are many of us with kids no longer in Payson schools will support their outcry.

The elementary schools remain very good, I think, and have heard no complaints. That cannot be said of either the middle or high school. Now, on the subject of backpacks, if they are to outlaw carrying backpacks (which I would support), they need to start at the elementary school level where most children do carry them. Interesting that we somehow managed to go to school without them.

As for fencing, I think that the logistics of fencing the campuses of both the middle school and high school wil be tough. That doesn't mean that it can't or shouldn't be done. Just that it will require foresight, planning, and support of the community. I do think the cost will be very high, having recently fenced a portion of our yard. That should not prohibit fencing to close the campuses, though. The safety of the children is more important than that.

I'm all for building cafeterias adequate for all students, too.

You're right, Pat. As long as the kids are under the age of 18, parents have the final say. It comes back to my statement about parents of current students making noise. How many of those parents care enough to insist on change?

Some time ago I heard the reason for the back packs was to prevent keeping dangerous things in lockers. That makes no sense to me at all. I don't have kids in school but I do have grand kids in middle school, and when I see them lugging those backpacks around it amazes me.

Get rid of the back packs!! No doubt there will be a big argument about keeping them or getting rid of them, and it wouldn't surprise me if the school kids themselves would want to keep them. And maybe the kid with the knife didn't have it in his back pack, maybe it was in his pants, but just think of what all can be carried in those heavy packs. A perfect chance to steal something and stuff in the backpack, etc.

And coming home yesterday driving on Longhorn, lots of kids getting out of school, riding their bikes. And guess where they were riding? On the sidewalk. Not one of them was using the "bike lanes."

How many of the parents are here legally???
We didn't have back packs or a cafeteria.
Heck , we still had outhouses when I first started school.
You even see kids in kindergarten with back packs. It is the cool thing.
How about the state school facilities board paying for the fence etc.?
They were throwing money around like crazy a few years ago. Not that it went for any good cause. The Tonto Basin school is a good example of wasting money.
I would like to know why the H.S. kids can't practice running on the track and the school grounds instead of running all over the west end of town? Runing on concrete isn't good for them, it is a school activity and seems to be unsupervised.
Back to the fence. Almost all of the south side of the middle school and H.S. is fenced. It doesn't have to be a new fence all the way around the school. I'll bet we could get volunteers to do some of the work and donations of some of the materials and equipment needed. Now this would be a good project for the people of Payson.
The H.S. did have an unlicensed contractor doing some of thier work last school yr.
Let's go for safety instead of beautification. How about that $35,000 sign on the N.E. corner of the schools on Longhorn?

Cafeteria ????????

Anybody ever hear of a sack lunch? If you build a cafeteria, then the government will have to set up a free lunch program so everyone will have a balanced, non fattening diet.

Put gates on the parking lot entries and begin a truant officer program again - use the police department volunteers, maybe. If a student is on the street or at Taco Bell . check with a parent or school to verify he/she is allowed to be off school grounds during class hours. Or have the school issue passes to students who have to be off campus for a valid reason.

I believe parents should feel secure in knowing the children are on school premises during class hours.

What is a valid reason for being off the school grounds during class time? Severe bleeding or broken bones sticking out, only excuse.
Non fattening lunches, but snack and soda machines.
I would bet the free lunches are already being used and free breakfast.
I never felt secure when my kids were out of my sight. Not because they were bad kids, but because of what is out there. My 'kids' are 54, 52, and 46 and I still worry and check up on them. They did grow up in Mesa and Gilbert, but the cities were much smaller then.

Valid reasons:

Doctor or dental appointments.
Work permits .
Family emergency.

Maybe others would also qualify.

The only time in my life I played hooky, the truant officer was at my house waiting when I got home. What an embarrassment!

Today I spoke with the mother of the boy who was stabbed. According to her, the boy who stabbed her son was on the football team. With him were several other boys, also on the football team. The officer investigating the incident is the high school football coach.

No one from the high school called to see how the (stabbed) boy was doing after surgery. In fact, it took a visit to the superintendent of schools to get the high school principal to call to inquire. The principal claimed that he had tried to call. No way. Apparently he hasn't heard of caller ID.

That is unforgivable! How long does it take to pick up a phone and call?

I hope the boy is doing OK Susan, and his parents. Can you imagine how she must feel? Things like this should not happen in Payson. What the hell is going on??? Something should be done. But the question is, what? Maybe the school officials will get off their thrones and investigate these problems. They made sure they punished those kids that were caught drinking after school hours and maybe even ruined one of their lives. (Just my opinion, they were too hard on those kids.)

Yes, Dean, it is unforgivable. And inexcusable.

The boy is doing okay. Not back at school yet. In fact, the mom isn't sure that she'll be sending him back to PHS.

Mom is more than a little upset. I got the impression that she called the Roundup, which led to the article in today's paper. I'm not certain of that, though. I do know that she has written letters to both editors.

She is in the kind of business that she can, and does, fill people in on the incident, what preceeded it, and what has happened since. If the school thinks this will be forgotten soon, they are mistaken.

Jim Keyworth was on KMOG today, and after listening to what he had to say, and hearing what was going to be his editorial, I called in to KMOG.

I really had issues with him trying to downplay the stabbing incident in school this week. His implication was "the other paper" had blown it out of proportion, and it wasn't all that serious, blah blah blah.

He said the knife was not a switch blade, JUST A POCKET KNIFE! What difference does it make what kind of knife it was? It was used to hurt someone, luckily it didn't kill him. The word is it was just a "Goth" kid that got stabbed.

So he deserved to get a knife stuck in him? Because he wore black and died his hair?

Was it self defense? Was it a "Latino" that stabbed him?

Keyworth says the REAL story will be in this issue of the Gazette. I hope it isn't as screwed up as the REAL story he wrote about the Women's club/Historical Society/Archeology saga.

And why do I keep thinking if the Payson Roundup had written about the stabbing and tried to downplay the incident, the Gazette would then have taken the opposite side and come out swinging, saying how serious this incident is??

Because that's what the Gazette does, always bashing the Roundup. Always implying they haven't got their facts right. Give it a rest for crying out loud. I'm sick of hearing it. You have a good little paper, don't destroy it with your bitterness towards the Roundup.