Kids’ laundry? Eustis should keep thinking outside box
My husband and I mentor students at Eustis Heights Elementary School. We, as do many city leaders and citizens, applaud the school, staff and principal. As an April 14 Sentinel article stated, more than 130 students in two elementary schools, which are in close proximity, are considered homeless; they live in a car, a motel or with relatives. Ninety percent of Eustis Heights students qualify for free or reducedprice lunch.
Any innovative idea to help the students stay in school, prosper and become productive citizens should be welcomed and embraced, especially by the School Board.
School Board member Bill Mathias’ callous statement, “I agree in giving a hand up, not a handout,” questions whether it is the school district’s “responsibility” to wash the students’ clothes. He claims there are agencies across the county to assist in getting training or elevating students “from their circumstances.”
No, it is not anyone’s “responsibility” to help another person who is down on his luck, a veteran, a sick person, a homeless person or even a poor child. We do it because we care. Volunteers give their time, energy and even financial resources because they want to help another human being, not because it is their responsibility. Has Mathias ever seen a child bullied or ridiculed because her clothes are ragged and dirty?
As a former foster mother for nine years with about 30 children, I heard countless stories from children concerning their lives and living conditions — things that are unimaginable. Some mothers in the homeless shelter did not have a dollar to wash a load of clothes. Even worse, if you’re living in a car, it is hard to wash your clothes in a gas-station bathroom sink. When you are in that situation, trying to survive, washing clothes is not your highest priority. Should the children suffer because their parents do not always make the right decisions?
Mathias should let us all know where these agencies that can “assist in getting training or elevating them from their circumstances” are located. The agencies that he is referring to, I am sure need and welcome all the help they can get from state and local agencies, and most of all, from the Lake County School Board. I think his careless and ludicrous statement should elicit an outcry from the other School Board members and county officials.
I commend our elected city of Eustis officials and public-safety and administrative staffs who mentor and donate their time to Eustis Heights.
Congratulations to Chad Frazier, principal, and staff for their enthusiasm and creativity. How he gets there should not be limited by elected officials who know very little about children and families in need. Frazier and his staff should be commended for reinventing the way they deliver education to our most vulnerable students.
Above all, please do not stop thinking outside the box.