Homeland Security Grant
To the editor:
As the grandmother of five children in Maine elementary and middle schools and a registered Maine voter,
I have sent the following letter to our Congressional Delegation in the hopes that the actual intention of the Homeland Security Grant that was received by the Fort Fairfield Police Department will be made clear. It is my hope that the plan for armed police to be used as teachers in the Fort Fairfield schools is just not actually going to go through and that no such plan will be suggested for any Aroostook county school.
Dear Sens. Snowe, Collins and Rep. Michaud,
Could you please tell me the exact nature of the Homeland Security Grant recently received by the Town of Ft. Fairfield and what it was intended to be used for within the guidelines of the grant?
The Ft. Fairfield Journal (June 30, 2010) reports “… the FFPD received grant money from The Department of Homeland Security to immerse students into a police state environment and acclimate them to being watched and checked by armed officers in every aspect of their lives …”
According to Mark Gendron, superintendent of schools, the armed (with guns and tasers) police officers “… would be reading to elementary kids from 8:15 to 9:15 … and would also be present in the morning and afternoon when children are coming and going to school …”
According to the article, the use of taser as a deterrent or controlling device by a police officer is allowed by Maine State Law . The police are being paid to act as teachers. The community already pays for certified teachers. What possible reason would we have for bringing armed police into primary schools on a long term paid basis other than what the paper has stated? Is this actually a program to acclimate and intimidate children or to indoctrinate them to be accepting of a “Police State”? Or has the local police designed their own program with the monies provided? If the latter is true, is it appropriate under the conditions of the grant?
Surely being on the border of a foreign country, through which drugs and illegal aliens (violent gun, and drug smuggling and aircraft hijacking illegal aliens, as reported in our papers in recent history!) have been passing, the money could be better used than to pay the police to sit and read to kids when we have teachers on the pay roll already doing it!
If the assertions of the paper are true, I am outraged and want the issue brought to light and the program stopped.
Presque Isle
