Letters To The Editor

Sat., July 1, 2000

EDITOR’S NOTE

Seventh-grade language arts students at Lakes Middle School wrote letters to the editor about issues that concern them directly. Here are some of those letters, provided by teacher Leslie Odenthal.

New building brings more traffic

It seems to me that the talk of the moms in the neighborhood no longer is about whose gardens are better, or the noisy fight two doors down three months ago, but always about the new big building blocking the beautiful view of the mountains.

The flood gates have opened and 10 times as many more cars drive by every day, which in the end leaves children at a greater risk of getting hit. Not only that, now we have to look at a big, ugly building when we could be looking at a big, tall, beautiful mountain.

It’s pretty impossible to get a building down that already is up, so just keep in mind that a business should be a business, not anywhere near a neighborhood filled with families. Sarah Nelson

School should start later in the day

I think that we need to change the times that public schools begin and end school sessions.

People aren’t getting enough sleep and don’t have enough time to eat breakfast or watch shows in the morning. So if we changed the time the schools started, maybe to 9 or 10 a.m., people would have more time to do those things and probably do better in school than they did previously.

Then it would reduce juvenile crime because most crimes committed by kids are done right after school, when their parents are still at work. Therefore, if you change the time they start you could keep them at school two hours longer. So by the time they get home, Mom and Dad are already there to keep them in line. Bret Olsen

New mall needed closer to Coeur d’Alene

I think we need a new mall in Coeur d’Alene because it would be a good place for kids to hang out. It is hard for kids to get to Silver Lake Mall because it is so far from Coeur d’Alene. If we had a mall it would attract more people especially if we had a GAP, Zanies, Zoomies, etc. We need a mall like the NorthTown Mall in Spokane. Billy Gill

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