Dear Editor,
It was with great dismay that I read a few weeks ago that the Marysville Exempted School Board is considering changing a policy so alcohol can be sold at concerts.
Taxpayers should have a say about alcohol sales on school property, since we are paying the bills. Why would anyone think it is okay to allow alcohol sales of any kind, for any reason, on school property in the first place? Signs are posted stating no drugs or alcohol on the property.
Adults need to be good examples as children learn quickly from what they see. They realize what is going on before they can talk. It is bad enough that there is now MORA, or whatever, downtown because adults do not want to live a couple of hours without alcohol. For a community that is supposed to be so concerned about drug abuse, this is hypocritical because alcohol is a drug.
I taught in a public school on a Native American reservation. Destruction of communities, loss of jobs, domestic violence, ruin of families, learning disabilities and abuse of children were the visible results of drugs and alcohol. One day at school some preschoolers were playing house and pretended to go to Walmart. When they were ready to checkout, the little girl said “Oh, we forgot the Bud Lite.”
There was a preschooler who had bad headaches, only to find out that an adult had left an open container in their car and the boy drank some of the alcohol. In first grade classes there were children with severe fetal alcohol syndrome. Various times I was asked if addiction problems were bad on the reservation. I would answer they are just as bad off the reservation.
With the rapid growth of Marysville and Union County, school districts need to consider the taxpayers. Olentangy School District in Delaware County is a good example of overspending. The new schools have the top-of-the-line of everything, like granite countertops. This causes property taxes to be so high that residents of many, many years have to sell their property and move out of the district because they can no longer afford their property taxes.
In many cases, outsiders move into the district and demand the most elaborate facilities for their children, passing every levy that comes along. They then move out of the district as soon as their children graduate because they no longer want to pay the outrageous property taxes they caused.
Let’s get back to using common sense and being good role models for the young ones in our community.
Sharon L. Parrott
Marysville