Unrest disrupts Central school activities

By FULLER ROYAL

City school officials say they can no longer guarantee the safety and wellbeing of students at Central Middle School – especially after school hours – unless major changes are made in the surrounding neighborhoods.

Following the second reported gunfire incident in 11 months at the Westside Whiteville Park, City Schools Superintendent Danny McPherson and CMS Principal Beverly Boone have asked the City of Whiteville to beef up its patrol of the area and provide a uniformed officer from 3 until 5 p.m. and for any school activities that run later.

Westside Park adjoins the west end of the CMS property, separated by a six or seven-foot-tall fence. That fence contains numerous sections that can easily be scaled, crawled through or crawled under.

Only one segment has three-stand barbed wire.

Last week, gunfire was exchanged in the park between unknown subjects.

“This is real,” a frustrated McPherson said Tuesday. “This is not California or New York. This is here in Columbus County and right here in Whiteville.”

Last week, McPherson was attending an after-school teachers’ meeting when a Whiteville police officer approached McPherson and told him that a gunman was loose in the neighborhood – possibly on the campus – after firing shots at someone in the park.

McPherson said the officer asked him to have all of the teachers remain in the library until the area was secure. Most students had already left for the day.

“We had to shut our people up in the media center because of an act of violence,” McPherson said. When the officer returned, he asked that the teachers not go back to their classrooms, but instead, head straight home.

McPherson said that 11 months ago, a gunman chased another man through a hole in the school’s perimeter fence during a CMS baseball game.

“Shots were fired,” McPherson said. “They were herding children into the dugouts and visitors into the dugouts and pushing parents and families to take cover.”

WPD officers on campus apprehended the suspect.

“This gives our school a negative reputation,” McPherson said, adding that the opposing team that day – Shallotte Middle School – vows to never again return to Whiteville to play ball.

McPherson said that the situation at CMS has become dangerous and that it’s time for the community to take back the neighborhood.

Two weeks ago, a 19-year-old Whiteville High School student was beaten into a coma by a group of males at that park. No one has been charged. Coaches in the Optimists Club’s Dixie Youth Baseball Leagues report occasional gunfire in the area during their practices and night games.

Several CMS teachers said that the criminal activities that were once only a factor of nightlife have now moved into broad open daylight.

“These acts are no longer in the cloak of darkness,” McPherson said. “It’s very frustrating.”

“This is unpredictable and it’s disturbing,” a worried Boone said Wednesday. “The staff and faculty, they want the park gone. It’s no longer a place where people feel good about going. It’s now consumed by random acts of violence. People want a safer campus.”

The park is the property of the city. The school system has no jurisdiction over the land.

“We try so hard to build up our school and keep it at a level where people can be proud,” she said. “But to have this in your backyard. It continues to create concern.”

McPherson said that it’s tough enough to recruit and keep qualified teachers, especially at the middle school level.

“How do you recruit and retain first-year teachers in this kind of climate, where they have to worry about their personal safety?” McPherson said. “I am concerned about the safety of both children and adults.”

McPherson said that on any afternoon, there are dozens of staff and students still on campus for sports and club activities as well as tutoring. Across the street, dozens of younger children are delivered by bus to the DREAM Center for after-school programs.

He said that the CMS parents have a heightened concern. They are reporting suspected drug activity on the outskirts of the campus observed while waiting in line to drop off or pick up their children.

McPherson said reports had been received of lewd behavior, vulgar language and the intentional blocking of the streets by groups of older students or non-students.

“We can’t fix this by ourselves,” Boone said. “We need everybody’s help on this.”

The day after last week’s shooting incident, McPherson said “No more. Something has to be done.” He spent the morning at CMS to make sure the teachers knew he was in their corner and to show his support.

McPherson and Boone later went to meet with Whiteville City Manager Susan Rhodes and Whiteville Police Chief Jerry Britt.

“I was to the point of saying that we were going to close the campus at 3:30 every day – no after school activities,” McPherson said. “I am not willing to risk a child’s life for any of this other stuff.”

A second officer will come in and patrol the school until all of those day activities, including sporting events, are finished.

A police officer will also be on hand for Optimist sports activities.

McPherson said that he sent word to Boone that, with the exception of actual sporting games, no one is to stay on the campus later than 5 p.m. All tutoring, club activities and athletic practices must be concluded by 5 p.m.

Teachers will no longer be allowed to work in their rooms past 5 p.m.

“And we will not have after-school activities without law enforcement present,” McPherson said. If there is no law enforcement, then the activity must be cancelled.”

McPherson said that a second officer, when available, would be added to the morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up of students.

“I want the citizens of this community to know the critical point we’re at with this,” he said, likening the situation to a cancer that needs to be cut out.

Boone said that CMS is a wide-open campus and that strangers trespass through the property all day long. There are 10 buildings on the campus with dozens of hiding places and not enough teachers to cover them.

McPherson said that he has already initiated an order to install campus-wide surveillance equipment, much like WHS.

Boone said that in all of her years of working in education, she had never before experienced anything like this.

She no longer works late at the school. She said there are too many surprises on campus with people popping up out of nowhere – sometimes groups of people. She said it’s also difficult to thoroughly secure the buildings.

Boone said that earlier this year, an eighth-grade teacher returned to her room after school to find a student hiding in her closet.

There had been shots fired next to the campus and he ran in into the closet to hide.

“The community has lost that park,” she said. “They won’t feel safe there.”

Boone said that some CMS students have been caught skipping class and going to the park. “That is the most dangerous place to go,” she said.

She said that her students, in general, feel some anxiety about their safety.

“Most people feel that anxiety,” she said. “These kids didn’t grow up in an Andy Griffith world. They’re growing up in TV violence.”

Eighth-grade teacher Rebecca Stephens said she’s concerned that after-school activities are going to be dictated by what’s happening in the park.

“We don’t need to wait until something else happens or until some children get hurt,” she said. Stephens said she had taught the student who was beaten into a coma. “This is already out of control and there is the potential for something worse to happen.”

Sixth-grade teacher Vivian Gore said the park is no longer the place parents thought it would be.

She said that if adequate patrolling by the police department cannot be arranged the park should be closed because of the increased criminal activity there.

“The criminal type of people seem to feel safe back in there and think they won’t be found out,” Gore said. “This is really hurting the kids.”

“Next year, I think we need a second police officer at Central,” McPherson said. The city schools pick up the tab for its two officers now – one at WHS and one at CMS. McPherson said the second officer’s shift could overlap so the campus would have full police coverage from morning until night.

Officers often have to leave the school unguarded to answer other calls.

Boone said she would like to see a way to enclose all of the CMS buildings into one unit.

“You can’t have a situation like this in our backyard and feel safe,” Boone said. “I’m proud to walk around this campus and show the classrooms. You’ll see good teaching going on.”

McPherson said he would call for a community-based task force composed of “real people in our community who want to take their children to that park. They have to be part of that solution.
“This community is full of good people but if we don’t take back our community, evil will take over. The worst thing we can do is to close our eyes to this.”