To close or not to close BHS campus

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

Oct. 29, 1999

By Devlyn Brooks

Person after person after person ... after person ... testified at a public hearing Thursday sponsored by the Bemidji School Board that a closed-campus policy should be instituted at the new Bemidji High School.

People from all aspects of the community -- teachers, cops, attorneys, counselors, parents and even residents near the new school -- stepped forward to voice why they strongly felt a closed campus was necessary.

During the two-hour hearing, only two lonely people reasoned that students should maintain the privilege of an open campus when they move from the current high school to the new one.

BHS student Meagan Sweet -- the only student to speak at the hearing -- shyly said a closed campus sounds like the school is being built like a prison or like the Bemidji Middle School, where students receive punishment for leaving the school.

She added that she currently eats lunches with family members and with a closed campus she couldn't do that.

Finally, she said, "And I don't like school food."

Bemidji resident Kirk Eckstine -- the only adult who spoke in favor of an open campus -- said enclosing the kids in the school is like institutionalizing them and hiding them from the realities of life.

"We're dealing with young adults. If we institutionalize them, they don't have a grasp of freedom," he said. "We have to work with the students to teach them how to be responsible adults."

More than 15 other people, however, said they opposed the open campus for a variety of reason.

Some said a closed campus was safer for students because they aren't rushing to and from restaurants during lunch. Others said it would decrease the amount of truancy, crime and smoking by students now who are able to participate in negative behaviors because of the current high school's open-campus policy. And still others thought that the students' grades would improve because of a closed campus.

Thad Bowman, a BHS teacher and a resident near the current high school, said presently, there are too many students behaving negatively.

He said his wife, who is home sometimes during the day, watches the kids smoke and "trash" the neighborhood.

"A closed campus run correctly is mot preferable," he said. "We're really quite happy the school is moving out of the neighborhood."

Other school staff members echoed his sentiments, adding that truancy would be reduced and grades would improve.

"It really bothers me to see the number of kids smoke around Conoco (at the corner of Bemidji Avenue North and 15th Street Northwest)," teacher Jim Lien said. "If we allow this activity to continue, we are condoning it."

Beltrami County Attorney Tim Faver and Assistant County Attorney Randall Burg both said they were in favor of a closed campus.

"I have seen the open-campus policy pervasively abused," Burg said. The kids commit petty misdemeanors, thefts, substance abuse and even assaults, he continued, ending with his opinion that an open campus undermines the school process.

Bemidji police officer Michael Haines, who worked in the school district with the Drug Awareness and Resistance Education program and now works with the Paul Bunyan Drug Task Force, said a closed campus would limit the exposure students have to drugs, smoking and a host of other substances.

For instance, he said the drug task force recently arrested a family in the current high school's neighborhood for selling drugs, and just last week he arrested a 20-year-old for selling cocaine to a 17-year-old during the school day.

As for smoking, when he worked at the school, he once issued 80 citations to juveniles for smoking in a three-month period. All of the violations took place within two blocks of the school.

"We all live under the laws and regulations necessary because of 10 percent of the population," Bemidji Director of Public Safety Bob Tell said about the concern of punishing the majority of students for the unruly acts of a few. "There should be no difference at the school."

Dick Lueben, a Bemidji resident and parent of a BHS graduate, said even though the policy would be unpopular with students, the School Board should close the campus.

"The duty of the school comes far more stronger than the pleasure of the students," Lueben said.

Linda Law, a resident near the new school and mother of three recent BHS graduates, added: "The business of kids is learning. The business of schools is teaching. And neither of these can happen with an open campus."

About 50 people and the School Board members attended the session.

The Bemidji School Board will host a second public hearing at 7 p.m. Nov. 22 in the current Bemidji High School Green Room.