Residents up in arms

Residents of a Radisson Heights neighborhood are demanding police and
aldermen step in to curb drug use and escalating youth violence in their
community.

``We are literally prisoners in our homes,'' said Karen Scott of Radley Way
S.E., during a parent protest a day after two groups of teens clashed two
blocks from her home Monday.

A recent Catholic school board decision to ban smoking on school grounds
has resulted in students pouring across the street from Father Lacombe
Senior High onto lawns and lanes of homes on Radley Way, where they
``openly smoke marijuana,'' said Scott.

``About 80 per cent of the people here have children under five. We cannot
go out of our community at noontime, in the morning or at 3:30 p.m.'' About
two dozen parents attended the protest.

Det. Stuart Seamans said the students involved in Monday's altercation are
generally not troublemakers.

Monday's fight was a result of a dispute among Father Lacombe students and
was not gangrelated, police say. Twelve males, aged 16 and 20 years, face
weapons and disturbance charges following the brawl on Radcliffe Crescent
S.E., involved baseball bats, golf clubs, chains, knives and pepper spray.
Witnesses said machetes were also used in the bloody dispute but none have
been recovered by police.

The school has talked to the students about being good neighbors, said
viceprincipal Luc Marmelic. ``It's not an issue of violence, it is an
issue of the community being frustrated by how students are viewed in this
area. I don't believe our students are doing anything deliberate to harm
our community.''

Several students confronted the protesters Tuesday.

``It's a fact of life now that we have to deal with that kind of stuff, you
know, the violence and having those people saying we're all a bunch of bad
kids,'' said student Jessie Richard. ``Ninetynine per cent of us aren't
like that.''

But Scott says violence, drug use and crime are endemic.

Dawn Nielsen, who has lived on her street for 12 years, claims she
collected two bags of garbage including needles and used condoms and
took them to the school Monday.