News-Record.com

No, I do not think a liquor store belongs next to a school! There is already an ABC store one block away heavily used by the Lake Jeannette/Irving Park Community. I don't think this proposal would even be considered if it involved a more affluent school with active and influencial parents. Why can't the ABC commission just say no to it because it is best for children, not just offer these rediculous incentives that will not change the fact that alcohol will be sold right beside a school- is the profit motive that important that we endanger our kids? Being from that area, I can see what the ABC comission is doing. They want to close the Cone Blvd. and N. Elm store and open a new larger store in the less affluent N. Church street community with easy access for the Lake Jeannette/Irving Park community. In addition, the two convenience stores on the corner of Pisgah Church & N Church street have already experienced many armed robberies this past year and there is even a makeshift homeless camp in the woods across from Skateland USA- wouldn't an ABC store only bring more crime and poverty issues to that area?- what a safety issue for those students. There are plenty of other parcels of land for sale in that area that would be a better pick for the store. They should just do the right thing and not set that community up for failure.

all great points, but the ABC board is in the business to make a profit, not watch after kids. It is up to us as a society to make it known that this is not acceptable.

True, Deborah- This country was founded based on the profit motive, yet I do remember a lot of posturing, in historical documents by our founding fathers and otherwise about the moral responsibility to uplift our community at large and the contributing to the "common good"- what about that? One can't be moral and make a profit at the same time? Or does one always supercede the other?

My mother, grandmothers, grandfathers have all died from alcohol related illness, Mom at 44 with liver disease. Dad is still alive with mind of a ten year old thanks to the stuff. At 16 I recognized I was an alcoholic one morning and quit cold turkey and have not touched a drop since. Call me holier than thou if you want, but alas it is more scared than thou if you want to know the truth. When you have seen a mother and FOUR stepmothers suffer from it and because of it, watched the physical and emotional abuse and suffering it causes in others, been attacked by a drunk teenage sitter with a knife, watched a drunk navy seal dive, get the bends, scream like a baby and loose a leg and almost his life because of it, then tell me about a holier than thou attitude. I could go on and on, but suffice it to say it is pure fear of the stuff and no piety whatsoever on my part!

Give kids a chance, make it as difficult as possible to get at the stuff. No, I am not ignorant of how easy drugs etc. are for kids to get, but any little bit can save the lives and families of the future.

Like most states, NC should have a law requiring a good distance between schools and alcohol sales.
Garth

Hey, I know! Let's just distribute pacifiers to all Guilford County students! This School Board does NOTHING to promote maturation, independence, nor achievement. They are all about how they can coddle the kids! It makes me sick! What next, no lawn equipment in the vicinity of schools "just in-case" someone gets hurt? These kids are sneaking cigarettes to school. So, should we mow over all the tobacco fields they see on the bus ride to school? C'mon, get real Board members. Just stick to EDUCATING our kids and quit trying to practice a Socialist society! I don't even patronize "ABC" stores but for Pete's sake lets give the kids the benefit of the doubt. Just because it's right in eye-sight doesn't mean they will all be alcoholics. This is just like Guilford County board members, do everything except talk about ways to get kids to show up each day. I wish the ABC store was the only problem we have, but since there are a multitude of other dilemmas, I think the board's time would better be spent visiting schools and seeing all the kids with their SMOD pants around their ankles! I wonder what they'd say to the kid that's cutting class and cussing out their teacher, "What's wrong, Tyron? Is that ABC store over there distracting to you?" That's what Deena says I'm SURE!

Hey, I know! Let's just distribute pacifiers to all Guilford County students! This School Board does NOTHING to promote maturation, independence, nor achievement. They are all about how they can coddle the kids! It makes me sick! What next, no lawn equipment in the vicinity of schools "just in-case" someone gets hurt? These kids are sneaking cigarettes to school. So, should we mow over all the tobacco fields they see on the bus ride to school? C'mon, get real Board members. Just stick to EDUCATING our kids and quit trying to practice a Socialist society! I don't even patronize "ABC" stores but for Pete's sake lets give the kids the benefit of the doubt. Just because it's right in eye-sight doesn't mean they will all be alcoholics. This is just like Guilford County board members, do everything except talk about ways to get kids to show up each day. I wish the ABC store was the only problem we have, but since there are a multitude of other dilemmas, I think the board's time would better be spent visiting schools and seeing all the kids with their SMOD pants around their ankles! I wonder what they'd say to the kid that's cutting class and cussing out their teacher, "What's wrong, Tyron? Is that ABC store over there distracting to you?" That's what Deena says I'm SURE!

Gee, Mother Goose- Thanks for that rational solution to what is a serious issue. If you think socially responsible laws = socialism than maybe YOU need to go back to school.

With fear of being beat up on this blog, please help me to understand exactly how this ABC store is going to hurt this school???

Aren't there plenty of grocery stores and convenience stores located near schools and don't these same stores sell beer, cigarettes, etc.?

The ABC employees aren't going to sell alcohol to underage people.

Morality? Profit? I'm sorry but I just don't see the problem.

"Socially Responsible Laws"..hmmmm, that sounds like something we invented so we can blame the government for problems at home. Get real. There is a drinking age. Is that law not responsible enough for you, "concerned"? Iff you break the law and sneak some booze from the ABC store next door to your school, no law in the world about 'distance of ABC schools to schools' is going to make a difference to those who want to obtain it. They will find a way. I seriously laugh that this is even an issue. If so, then let's just isolate our schools from all of society. There should be no more bus rides through town, no more field trips because you KNOW buses pass nice establishments like, "Christy's", bars, tattoo parlors, etc. If you want to be brutally honest, kids in many cities pass prostitutes on their way to school! So, really, should we spend time pacifying kids so they are blind to reality, or should we just teach the consequences of such behavior. I for one would rather my child's school be next to an ABC store that voluteers to teach about alcohol, than just modifying and padding their world to make sure they don't *GASP* God-forbid, ever see an ABC store from their school window. Get a grip . Our kids are leaving the 12th grade and cannot even spell ABC. Are you seriously going to spend your time advocating we tell businesses to pick up and move so we don't tarnish our babies' rosey-glassed perception of the world? Oh! I just had another thought! What about Churches? You know, being a Methodist, I'm not quite sure I want my child looking at a Baptist church when she looks out the window at school! I better call my school board rep! Forget the main agenda of our educational system, I think they are more suited to socialism.

Obviously...none of you understand what type of students could possibly be in this school........
....the school board knows and that is why they are so upset.....

21 year old, 6th year English 9 repeating, convicted....felons....

yes....only the best ... attend SCALE's

If I were ABC, I would be more concerned for my safety and welfare than the students..............

They are much more likely to be robbed by these hoodlums....than in the current location.....

AMEN!
All posters should go to SCALES and see if you want to live next to it!!! What a wake up call
you will have..................Ha! ha!

I like the responses…libertarianism at it’s greatest. FYI I normally lean this way. To make it simple, the neighbors’ child is at your house and has not eaten anything since yesterday, you make some fresh cookies and tell him he can’t have any as you leave them alone and expect to come back to the cookies untouched. There are kids I would trust in this scenario and those I would not. The real question is if the kid eats a cookie who is to blame? The neighbor who didn’t feed the child, you for tempting the child, or the child for not being able to control themselves?

The greatest oxymoron I know is “common sense”.

Garth, so will all field trips be cancelled then? Are you adding shades to school buses? How will we shield all these little cookie monsters from all the evils of the world? That is the goal of the school board, right? Seriously, wouldn't your time be better spent trying to figure out how to get to the kids at the Scale School, how to get inside their mind, rather than control their surroundings?

I don't think that having an ABC Store next to a school would necessarily make a student want to be an alcoholic. I have seen ABC stores in shopping centers where questionable characters sometimes hang around in front of these stores. A minor couldn't buy alcohol in these stores but wouldn't it be easy for a minor to pay one of these characters to slip him some alcohol. Also what message does this send to these students? Would they see these characters as "role models"?

I would imagine that the teachers and counselors have enough to deal with at SCALES. Why should we tip the "SCALE" and give them more potential problems to deal with. I think their jobs are hard enough as is.

If other states have laws preventing this, their must be good reasons.

Wow! Having a liquor store next to SCALE Academy would be really convenient for the teachers who have to work there!

Now that is a very valid point!

Thanks to everyone for their comments. I think it's great the ABC board are looking to compromise, but it seems they'll have to take a lot more into context (like what Barbara Ann and Concerned said) before things move forward. This has given me some ideas for a blog I recently launched with the NIFB Young Entrepreneur Foundation.

Thanks!

Julie
http://youngentrepreneurfoundation.wordpress.com/