A new family access center and the role of Columbia Public Schools in community violence intervention were some of the topics discussed in Wednesday’s Mayor’s Task Force on Community Violence Open Forum. This was the second in a series of meetings for the public to discuss the progress on the implementation of the recommendations which were presented to city council a year ago.
The discussion centered mostly on intervention solutions and was led by Second Ward Council Member Michael Trapp. He said he is pleased with the progress made so far but stresses that change takes time.
“It’s going to be a long haul,” Trapp said. “Violence in our community is a generational problem and it doesn’t lend itself to knee-jerk reactions and quick fixes and so we didn’t invest in any of those and we’re working towards making systematic change that are going to change the outcomes for the people who live here.”
The majority of the meeting was spent discussing progress made with Columbia Public School’s role in community violence intervention. One of the solutions discussed was the creation of standard curricula to make it easier for low-income children that often have to move districts mid-year. Another was ways to gain more funding for more uniformed school resource officers in order to create better relationship between police and at-risk youth. Discussion also centered on a new family access center for at risk-youth.
Community members participated in the discussion and offered their opinions on the solutions presented. John Clark, a neighborhood and community activist, said he disagreed with using funding to hire more uniformed school resource officers.
“You do not have to have uniformed police officers in the school for them to be safe,” he said. “In fact, it probably makes it less safe and it certainly not the way you build trust between the school population, you can do that in other ways.”
Clark says that instead funding should be used to hire more social workers and crisis counselors.
The next meeting to continue to discuss progress on the recommendations is scheduled for December 11.
