Four-Step Process to ‘Save’ East Baton Rouge Parish

Our Parish Stands at a Tipping Point: Will We Become Another Orleans?

by Woody Jenkins, Editor, Central City News

CENTRAL — Time is running out for East Baton Rouge Parish.

The election this November may well be our last opportunity to turn this parish around before we become another New Orleans where high crime and dangerous public schools make it impossible for middle income, working couples to live and raise a family.

Middle income families with children have been fleeing East Baton Rouge Parish for four decades.  Today, with the exception of Central and Zachary, East Baton Rouge Parish is made up of poor people, well-to-do people, and couples without children, especially retirees.  The parish is now 47 percent white in population and 56 percent white in voter registration.  What is almost completely missing from East Baton Rouge Parish, except in Central and Zachary, is middle income, working couples with children.

They are long-gone and have relocated to Livingston Parish and Ascension Parish.  Crime and poor public schools are at the root of almost every problem we face in this parish.

Ironically, even our traffic problems are primarily the result of crime and poor public schools.

Think about it: Why is there a traffic jam on I-10 between downtown and Ascension Parish every morning and afternoon?  Why is there a traffic jam on I-12, Florida Boulevard, and Magnolia Bridge between downtown and Livingston Parish every morning and afternoon?  People might have to work in Baton Rouge, but they refuse to live there — because of high crime and poor public schools!

Day after day, Channel 2, Channel 9, and the Advocate report on the murderous rampage going on in the City of Baton Rouge.

A generation raised without parents is in the streets night after night, killing one another and anyone in their way.

Any parent who sends his child to a public school in the inner city is turning that child over to these thugs.

If you have any doubt of that, please read the article, “Who’s in School,” which appeared in the Advocate this past Sunday, June 24, 2012.  See http://theadvocate.com/news/2809770-123/whos-in-school

The article documents the fact that literally thousands of juveniles who have committed serious crimes are currently enrolled in the East Baton Rouge Parish school system.  Many of these individuals have been enrolled in public school on instructions by judges who do not even inform the school system of the fact that the students committed serious crimes.

Wayne Messina, director of security for the East Baton Rouge Parish school system and a member of the Central City Council, reports that the school system receives violent offenders with electronic ankle bracelets but is not even informed that they are criminals, much less the nature of their offense.

In one infamous case, 18-year-old Quinton Adams, who was awaiting trial on a charge of forcible rape, was enrolled at Tara High School.  School officials were never told of his criminal past.  Then on Feb. 18, he allegedly raped a 14-year-old girl behind the stage curtain of the school theater.

According to the Advocate, perpetrators of nearly 3,000 crimes are enrolled in 20 East Baton Rouge Parish middle and high schools.

This insanity has got to end.

The juvenile justice system is literally killing us.  The idea of a separate justice system for juveniles began nearly 100 years ago.  The basic idea was that a kid who steals from the candy store shouldn’t be sent to prison with adults.  Instead, he should be treated and rehabilitated.  Even better, he should be “mainstreamed” within the community and the public schools.

Well, that’s fair enough for the kid who steals a candy bar, but what about the juvenile who murders, rapes, or commits armed robbery or host of other violent crimes?

Along the way, some well-intentioned idiots who were serving as legislators, judges, and social workers got confused and decided to treat the murderers, rapists, and armed robbers as though they had stolen a candy bar.  Thus, we have our current juvenile justice system, which leaves school children and the rest of us at the mercy of hardened criminals who happen to be under 17.  By rights, these individuals should be locked away.

Mayor-President Kip Holden, bless him, has repeatedly said that the crime situation is not so bad in East Baton Rouge Parish and is in fact improving.

Undoubtedly, his mindset is one reason we have such a grave problem.

Before it is too late — and it may already be — here’s a four-step process for turning this parish around and literally “saving” it from becoming another New Orleans:

Step One — New Mayor-President. On Nov. 6, 2012, replace Kip Holden with a tough, law-and-order Mayor-President who will change the image of the parish and let the criminals know they have no future in East Baton Rouge Parish.

Step Two — Turn Up the Heat on Criminals. Working with the Sheriff (not against him), the new Mayor-President should turn up the heat and literally run the criminal element out of this parish.  It has been done in other communities and it can be done here — completely within the Constitution.  The Sheriff gave us a good example of how to do it two years ago in Central Woods.  You have to bring together an array of pressures on the criminals to make this a place that is “too hot” for their comfort.

Step Three — New School Districts. We should learn from the experience of Central and Zachary and break the East Baton Rouge School System into five independent school districts — three in South Baton Rouge, one in the inner city, and another in the Pride, Baywood, and Chaneyville area.  The three South Baton Rouge districts would have the potential to challenge Zachary and Central as the best in the state.   The Pride-Baywood-Chaneyville district could be more than respectable.

Step Four — Bring Working People Back. With crime under control and good public schools in much of the parish, East Baton Rouge Parish would be poised for a genuine renaissance.  That’s when we would need to be good salesmen for our parish, explain what was being done, and encourage people to move back.

Our chief targets would be the people who have left East Baton Rouge Parish for Livingston and Ascension parishes.  Many are very happy there.  But many would like to come home — if crime were under control and we had good schools.  Livingston and Ascension are tired of being overrun by refugees from our parish, and they would probably throw a party.

Seriously, it’s do or die this year.  At the present rate, four years from now, EBR will be New Orleans.