Social Problems supports the Issue Addressed By Our Superintendant of Schools

This morning a friend posted a statement on a social media site which stated “I was raised. I didn't just grow up. I was taught.....” The piece went on to basically speak to manners, accountability, and responsibility.

So much of this is true. There is little respect, accountability and responsibility in our society today. It is very true here in New Britain for a myriad of reasons. In April of 2011, two teenagers were apprehended by observant New Britain Police Officers in the act of defacing both private and public property with spray paint. They “tagged” multiple buildings with the letters “CAP”. Their work stands today on Curtis and Myrtle Streets. It has not been removed a year and a half later, even though we know and proved who did it.

Superintendent of Schools Kelt Cooper has spoken to a lack of parenting and also on the lack of accountability of students. This is extremely obvious to us all and needs a solution. Mr. Cooper spoke to possible fines and I applaud him for his immediate identification of the issue, but more so for him proposing a community so I propose a different solution: a community court where punishment is service in the public eye.

For certain offenses (e.g. truancy; damage/destruction of private and public property; lack of parental engagement and effort; quality of life issues; etc); a party would appear before a community court for community based adjudication. Punishment would be to don a bright colored vest, and do a certain amount of supervised community work (pick up trash, clean spray paint, etc) as deemed appropriate by the court. In addition to educating through service, the bright vests just might have a deterrent value to others observing the work and perceived embarrassment. In my opinion, this would be a voluntary court that would educate through the planting of seeds of accountability and responsibility. Upon completion of the community service, the record would be expunged after a period of time if no further offenses were committed. Hopefully the offender learned from their mistake and has moved forward as a productive member of society.

Should the offender not wish to take the community court route, or fail in the execution of their assigned wake up call duties; they would move to the criminal system and hopefully be punished and their record published.

I don't know how this works in the State of Connecticut with money, political, and union constraints; but it must be immediately examined as an option that has value for our community in many ways. Our community and culture is crumbling around us Let's drive a work ethic coupled with respect back where needed in our society. Let's get our kids educated with basic work and social skills. Maybe if we expect more from people we'll get
Thank you for the consideration.

Michael W. Wanik

New Britain