Letter to the Editor – Mission CISD police department
After reading in the Progress Times that MCISD is considering its own police force I couldn’t help but recall the long proven saying that “it takes a village to raise a child”. That village of course includes its fire department, political infrastructure, laws, schools, churches and of course a police department. Each of these are specialties. Each requires special training and, in many cases, a special type of person. All these agencies are charged with raising children who will prosper in Americas free society, within a set of rules, and providing remediation if they don’t.
Does MCISD want to set a double standard? What benefit does a second police force have to “the village” and more importantly to the children? To me it seems that they want to establish a different set of standards for students. Our City of Mission police department enforces the law of the land daily. Would the school police enforce a different one? If not wouldn’t that agency be just a duplication of effort sponsored by control freaks? Shouldn’t the students expect that the laws and type of enforcement they experience for 13 years be the same they experience one foot off campus or a second after graduation?
On a more practical note, where will the ISD get these officers, vehicles, communication system, etc? Where will they be trained and by whom? Will they be paid the same as other Law Enforcement Officers in Mission and not “off the street” security guards? They would be placing our most valuable asset, our children, in unknown hands. Just for the chance at some possible future grants that might not even materialize.
Nope, Keep Law Enforcement within our police department. Add a little sensitivity training if needed, and maybe create a specialty division within the department for those experienced with school security. However, for a school board, who can’t even get a stadium repaired, to try and reinvent the police department is pure folly and a danger to the students.
Ned Sheats
Mission
Today, June-2023, is the second day the new Hidalgo county court house has sent all employees home because the air conditioning water cooler, damaged by a drunk driver a month or two ago, has failed leaving no ac for the court house building. Against the wish of many of us the new courthouse was built downtown to the tune of some $350,000,000 million dollars or possibly more and it was built WITHOUT A ELECTRICITY BACKUP SYSTEM??? Every grocery store, telephone centers have natural gas powered electricity generators that can keep power running for at least a week before needing to have their gas refilled. Where is this backup system and why is it not working over at the new Hidalgo county building?? Furthermore, how about all county heads working in that building park two blocks away from the courthouse, like working people have to do right now, and leave those parking spaces for regular working people who have business at the courthouse.