More on violence
I have a story in Sunday's paper regarding the Guilford County commissioners discussing school violence issues. The premise is that the commissioners have begun talking about whether they need to offer a helping hand to the schools in light of three recent incidents during which principals were injured breaking up fights.
You can find that story by clicking here. (Update: link is fixed at 7:20 a.m. on 10/03/04.)
In part, the stories were spurred by two recent letters from Commissioner Mike Barber to School Board Chairman Alan Duncan and Superintendent Terry Grier. Click here to read those letters.
A couple of thoughts about this story:
* Yes, we did consider the fact that Mike Barber is running for re-election and that talking about the high profile issue of the moment could just be a tactic to get his name in the paper. (We mention this in the story.) However, the currency and importance of the school violence issue made this something that we felt should not be ignored.
* You can read in the story that there are some commissioners who say the county doesn't have money to throw at the problem. And it is true that this has been a very tight budget year. But as I point out in the story, in the past when the commissioners have had the political will to pay for something unexpected, their staff members have found ways to come up with the dough.
A frequent refrain among commissioners is "count to six," a reference to the number of votes needed to pass something by the 11-member board. Barber doesn't have his six votes, but might be able to take advantage of the impending election and elevated public profile of the school violence issue to change that.