Skateboarding Leads to Public Defication?
“Oh sure we love skateboarding, just not in our city…”
Here is a letter that ended up in my email box a few days ago. It is a letter from the Huntington Beach High School PTSA regarding the new skatepark in Huntington Beach.
The part that I don’t get is why HBHS initially said they would only donate $75,000 to the park if it was next to the high school (Worthy Park) and now for some reason they don’t want the skatepark anywhere near the school? Here is the original letter the school is sending out…. you be the judge.
Dear HBHS Community,
Many of you may be unaware that the city is planning to relocate the skate park formerly next to the stadium to Worthy Park off of 17th Street. I just learned that the city has in fact already approved the relocation. What many of you may also not know is that the skate park was a source of tremendous problems for our high school at its previous location. The skate park was completely unsupervised and served as a gathering place not only for legitimate skateboarders but also for those both from within and outside our community looking for a place to engage in much less positive behaviour. The school experienced daily issues with the park including loud use of profanity, underage smoking, drinking, drug use, drug sales, public urination and defication. Young adults were often there providing drugs and alcohol to our students as well as younger children who gathered there to skate board. On several occasions our staff had to send students to the hospital who were found consuming alcohol at the park. After hours, many of the skateboarders would move from the skate park onto our campus causing significant damage to our school both with skateboards and with spray cans. All of these activities occurred not only after hours but often while class was in session. At its new location, the activities will occur within sight of our students and the after hours damage will be done to a school that has just undergone 5 years of taxpayer-funded renovations.
Other communities have skate parks as well but they also provide supervision to ensure the safety of those using the park. The City of Huntington Beach has no plans to provide any supervision and the HB Police Dept has always had a hands-off approach to the park. In fact, the city is unfairly relying on our high school staff to supervise a city facility.
At our meeting on Jan. 13th, the HBHS PTSA voted to oppose the location of the skate park near any of the schools in our district. I urge you to contact the city council as soon as possible and let them know that we must put our children’s safety and well-being first. Contact information is listed below.
Sincerely,
Laura Mercs
President, HBHS PTSA
City Council – Cathy Green, Jill Hardy, Keith Bohr, Joe Carchio, Gil Coerper, Devin Dwyer, Don Hansen
Facilities Manager – Dave Dominiguez
***Please voice your opinion and show your support for the skate community by sending a “respectful” email to one of Huntington Beach’s city council members.
cgreen@surfcity-hb.org
jhardy@surfcity-hb.org
kbohr@surfcity-hb.org
jcarchio@surfcity-hb.org
GCoerper@surfcity-hb.org
Devin.Dwyer@surfcity-hb.org
dhansen@surfcity-hb.org
ddominguez@surfcity-hb.org
-We can’t let this be our only skatepark