Letter: Embrace Your Neighborhood Schools

To the Editor:

On Friday, Sept. 15, I attended the Cooper High School football game. I was enjoying all the pregame activities and thinking to myself that it was such a nice safe environment for these young men and women. I really enjoyed the marching band and knew that all these kids were not only making wonderful memories but developing skills that would benefit them in their academic careers as well as in their adult lives.

My blissful moment was interrupted when a woman who lives near Cooper High School came onto the property and began yelling at the police officer that the marching band was too loud. The officer informed her that the noise level was within legal limits, but she remained argumentative. 

I then remembered how Cooper High School had to cancel  their  Relay for Life because a neighbor complained about the lights. The last year Cooper had the event they raised twenty one thousand dollars to fight breast cancer. It saddens me that the Relay for Life organization is missing out on the potential added funds because a neighbor cannot put up with lights for one night out of the year.

I live only a few blocks from Armstrong High School. I must admit I do hear the band and see the lights.  I knew a school was there, I knew that schools make noise, and that it is all part of the community. 

I wish this woman would put down her anger and embrace her neighbor, Cooper High School.  I wish she could realize that home games are few and far between.  I wish she could just put on some orange and be a part of those kids lives as opposed to always fighting a school that has no intention of ever moving or disbanding their football program.

In fact, I wish everyone would embrace and connect to their neighborhood school.  Give these kids a place where they can feel a sense of belonging.  It takes a village.

Mark Bomchill

Plymouth