I recall my grade-school days playing out during an era when public
schools were flush with cash and when the planet seemed to be inhabited
by far fewer loons and creeps.
So save for the occasional times when I'd canvass the neighborhood
peddling magazine subscriptions -- lured by the temptation of earning
some cheesy trinket -- I can't say that I spent any time looting the
community for extra pennies to deposit in school coffers.
But on the rare occasions when I did, it was never in fear that a
boogeyman might nab me. And I don't recall hawking wares under the
pressure to hit a quota in exchange for some recognition. I wish it were
the same for my kids. I wish it were true for the kids whose education is
entrusted to you. It's not. Which is why the Newport-Mesa Unified School
District needs to put a lid on school money drives involving student
solicitations.
By now you know -- as do the parents of every child in Mesa Verde --
that the boogeyman may indeed have struck. A 12-year-old, vulnerable and
innocent and trusting, was allegedly victimized in the most repulsive and
contemptible way by -- if the charges are proved -- a cretin of the first
order.
She was strolling in her neighborhood, knocking on doors, simply
asking folks to buy candy as part of her school-sponsored fund-raising
program. But when she happened upon the Costa Mesa home of 71-year-old
James Harper, read the charges, he allegedly molested her. He now
occupies a cell at the Orange County Jail, charged with kidnapping and
molestation.
The scarring tragedy that has befallen this poor youngster dwarfs --
indeed, renders insignificant -- the tempest that's been rattling my
household in recent weeks. My two youngest have been slipping in and out
of crying spells and stress sessions over the last fortnight for fear
they'd fail to nail down 70 bucks worth of sponsorships for their
school's jog-a-thon today. That would mean, they informed me, missing out
on a medal. So they scoured the neighborhood -- the very block canvassed
by the 12-year-old girl just days later -- asking folks to cough up a few
bucks that would help pay the salary of the school's science teacher.
In the vortex of these episodes, my blood quietly simmered with the
realization that our schools have been increasingly molding our children
into little hucksters, pint-sized Willy Lomans, miniature venture
capitalists.
This school year alone, one or more of my kids have been asked to
peddle gift wrap and cookie dough and frozen pizzas. They've been
