Calling for JCCA’s Closure in P’ville is Meant to Instill Fear in Election Year
Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
It must be getting close to local election time because the incumbent Mount Pleasant Republican elected officials are again trying to instill fear in the hearts of Mount Pleasant residents.
A few weeks ago, the Republican supervisor issued a Declaration of Emergency, alleging that we would be invaded by migrants moving from New York City to the JCCA Pleasantville campus (on Broadway.) Well, the allegations were false. As this newspaper accurately reported, no migrants were coming.
Now the Republican incumbents are at it again. They are calling for the closure of the JCCA campus, citing the number of incidents and police responses over the years.
Let’s be clear. The proper operation of the JCCA Pleasantville campus is a state issue. Local public officials should not alarm the neighborhood. They should take positive steps to work with our state officials to ensure that our residents are kept safe, property taxpayers do not bear what should be a state cost and any particularly distressed children are moved to facilities more suitable to their needs. We need public officials who will work with the JCCA to pressure the state to send only children who fit the facility’s model and to provide JCCA with the resources to continue the good work they have done for more than 100 years.
So many troubled children who lived and went to school on the JCCA Pleasantville campus are now responsible adults because of JCCA. Those on the campus today should not be used as pawns in a political campaign where the incumbents have little else to talk about.
Tom Abinanti, Chair
Mount Pleasant Democratic Committee
Francesca Hagadus, Vice-Chair
Mount Pleasant Democratic Committee
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