Marengo Elem. School Problems

Check out the Letter to the Editor in today's Northwest Herald with 143 responses already (at 8:55PM). The letter headline is "Reprehensible behavior". To find it after today and after it drops off the Most Read letters list, just search on the NWH website (http://www.nwherald.com/) for "reprehensible" or the author's last name.

Author Kristin Ottolino wrote about a school board member who was the subject of a Marengo Police Department report after he dropped the f-bomb in the hallway at Locust Elementary School.

I was reminded by this article that a sergeant at the Marengo P.D. has not called me back. I had picked up a copy of the police report about the f-word and noted that the reporting officer had written that Jeff Hoffmann would call him back. There was no supplementary report delivered to me with the original, and I wanted a copy of that, too.

The police must really be busy in Marengo. Too busy to return a phone call? Too busy to follow up on a police report, when the perp doesn't call back after he told an officer that he would?

And too busy to meet with a parent? A parent had an appointment this week at the Marengo Police Department about her child's being approached on school grounds and being asked who his mother was. The person asking was not a school employee.

Does Locust Elementary School allow people to just walk around unescorted on school grounds during school hours? As I've heard the story, the parent called the police and set up an appointment to go into the police department and talk to them. An hour before that meeting, that parent was called and told that an "emergency" had come up and the police would not be able to meet with her for about ten days.

About all I can say about that is, (fill in the blank)! The parent had better get hold of the Mayor and the City Council and ask what kind of police department they have in Marengo.

What kind of emergency comes up that a police officer cannot meet with a person wanting to discuss filing a complaint for ten days??? Short of the whole town burning down or a toxic spill or a major health scare, I can't think of one.

Oh, by the way, I am further reminded that Principal Suellen Lopez did not return my call of May 20. My, my; manners are slipping in Marengo.

Stay tuned for more on this incident.