WHAT THE KIDS OF NORQUAY SCHOOL TOLD MICHAELLE JEAN

Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean met with Grades 5 and 6 students from Norquay
School at the Graffiti Gallery last Tuesday, where two girls in Room
16 read her a letter asking for help to make their neighbourhood safe.

Dear Governor General

WE are writing as a concerned group of grades 5 and 6 students from
Norquay School in Point Douglas. We are experiencing numerous problems
in our neighbourhood that are making us feel very unsafe. As a class,
we were discussing personal safety issues with our teacher. From this
discussion, a lot of our feelings and our concerns were heard. With
the help of our principal and our teacher we discovered that we have
the voice and the power to speak about issues that are very important
to us and our community. We hope you will listen to our concerns and
help us in any way possible to make our community a safer place to
live.

We have prioritized and summarized the most important issues that are
affecting us in the Point Douglas neighbourhood. These issues are
physical assaults, verbal assaults, personal safety, drugs, gangs and
theft. These are the key problems we really want your help and support
with, to make changes in our community.

We are concerned about the physical assaults that we are experiencing
in our neighbourhood. Here are some of the issues we are dealing with:
people using bear mace, beating kids up, bullying the young and the
old, hitting, punching, kicking, pushing, throwing rocks at people and
even animal cruelty. We want these things to change in our
neighbourhood now!

Here are some complaints that we have about verbal assaults in our
neighbourhood. There are a lot of older kids making threats that are
making the younger kids and the adults scared. Some of these kids try
to encourage us to fight and threaten to beat us up if we don't fight.
These kids also threaten to beat us up if we don't give them our
money. It really bothers us that these same kids call elderly people
names for no reason. Verbal assaults make for a negative atmosphere.

Personal safety is an issue that we would like to talk about. There
are often teenagers walking around the area scaring us with pit bulls.
Some kids interfere with our outdoor games after school hours. They
take over our game or take our equipment from us. Sometimes we don't
feel safe in our own homes, as kids throw rocks or eggs at our houses
and vehicles.

The neighbourhood doesn't feel safe because there is broken glass,
needles, evidence of drugs and shotgun shells left lying around on the
ground, sidewalk, streets and parks. When we see certain people in the
area we go back into our homes, our yards and our friends' houses or
turn around and go back the other way so we don't have to face them.
We would like some action to be taken regarding these issues.

One problem we have in the area is that there are too many drugs.
There are many places and streets around the neighbourhood that are
known to have people selling drugs. Older kids are not only selling
drugs but trying to give out drugs. We're upset because these kids are
selling drugs, giving out drugs and doing drugs at places where we're
supposed to feel safe. We are approached by older kids to hold their
drugs. We are worried that drugs can interfere with children and youth
getting an education.

Another problem with drugs in the neighbourhood is all the crack
houses and abandoned houses where these kids hang out. We also have
lots of used needles left around the neighbourhood, which is very
unsafe. Drugs are a big problem that we need help with.

We are concerned about the gangs in the Point Douglas area. We are
worried about that fact that these people are carrying around bats,
knives and other dangerous things. We are also worried about kids that
might get beaten up by the gangs. We don't like that our neighbourhood
is full of graffiti markings from the gangs in the area. We are
concerned that the gangs will offer younger kids drugs. The change we
would really like to see regarding the gangs in the area is to make
sure people stop selling drugs around local stores and parks. Any help
you could provide us with would be appreciated.

Here are some of the complaints that the kids in this neighbourhood
have about theft. Some of the older kids in the neighbourhood steal
younger kids' money, sports equipment and bikes. There are times when
we see people driving recklessly around our area in stolen vehicles
and we're worried someone is going to get hurt. We are fed up with not
being allowed into stores without an adult or guardian present because
other kids steal. We are frustrated with the theft in the area.

In conclusion, we would like to express how these issues affect us and
the change that we would like to see for the Point Douglas area. We
thought you needed to know that we are scared of the people who are
making bad choices in the neighbourhood. Sometimes we are so scared we
feel the need to bring our younger siblings inside when we see
negative behaviour around us. The bad choices kids are making really
upset us. Sometimes we feel so frustrated because we don't feel safe
walking around our neighbourhood. We are often afraid that if we do or
say something, that these kids will retaliate. We like living in Point
Douglas, but sometimes we feel so mad that we want to move out of the
neighbourhood. We're livid, we're nervous, we're terrified, and we're
sad!

We want change for our neighbourhood! We would like to have more
police officers in our community so they can get rid of the gangs, the
drugs and the drug houses. We want our community to be drug free. We
want the laws regarding graffiti and the selling of spray paint to
kids to be tougher so that our neighbourhood won't look so awful. We
also want to see tougher laws dealing with the selling and using of
bear mace. We want to see the houses in the area fixed up and to have
nice fences. We want our community centre to be a safe place to play
and have fun. We would like programs like the Boys' and Girls' Club to
continue and to have more activities for kids to participate in, in
this area. We want our parks to be clean, drug-free and safe for us to
play at. Most importantly, we want to walk around in our neighbourhood
and feel confident!

Thank you for taking the time to listen to our concerns. We would
appreciate your support regarding these serious issues in our
neighbourhood. If you could help us make some positive changes for our
neighbourhood, we would be very grateful. We look forward to hearing a
response from you in the near future.

The Grades 5 and 6 students from Room 16 at Norquay School.