- April 19, 2024
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Kiwanis Club supports state funding for Healthy Families Florida
Dear Editor:
Kiwanians are community leaders and business professionals committed to changing the world, one child and one community at a time. Child abuse can have profound detrimental effects on children’s development resulting in costly consequences for the individual, family and community, which is why we support Healthy Families Florida.
This evidence-based home visiting program is proven to effectively prevent child abuse in high-risk families at a fraction of the cost of treating the consequences of abuse after it occurs.
We are pleased that the Legislature has maintained Healthy Families Florida funding at its current level of $18.1 million at this point in the budget process. However, we remain hopeful that if additional resources are available, the Legislature will bring this successful prevention program back to its 2009-2010 funding level of $28.1 million, or increase the funding as much as possible so more communities and vulnerable families and their children are able to receive these vital services.
By preventing child abuse before it ever begins, we are building a strong foundation for a more prosperous future for our entire state.
Allen Whetsell
Governor, Florida Kiwanis
What the seventh-graders think
The following letters were sent from Angela Conner’s seventh-grade class at Indian Trails Middle School.
Thanks for supporting the skatepark
Dear Editor:
I was reading your article about the Wadsworth skatepark published on Saturday, March 2. I can understand why Brian Kopec would want to take action: The park is falling apart. The ramps are rusting, concrete is breaking, and the graffiti is distracting.
If I were in the Flagler County Parks and Recreation Department, I would want to make the park a little bit safer. The ramps need to be painted because sometimes when the paint flakes it can catch the skateboard wheel and make you go flying off your board. Even though it will cost $200,000 to repair the skatepark, it is worth it to protect my safety and the safety of the other children who skate there.
Cleaning up the park will not only make it a safer place for children, it will make adults feel better about letting their kids skate there. I skate there very weekend with my friends, and we notice that the park is falling apart. My parents feel scared to let me go there with the condition it is in. It will make me and my family feel better because they know I will be safe. Thank you, Brian Kopec, for helping the youth of Flagler County.
Joshua Santos-Jones
Stop bullying related to sexual orientation
Dear Editor:
In a nation where people have learned to accept simple differences like the color of someone's skin or their religion, you would think that something as simple as a student's sexual orientation wouldn't matter.
But it does.
Homophobic hate crimes are on the rise: According to the Huffington Post, 23 out of 139 hate crimes that were committed in 2011 were motivated by sexual orientation. A teen from Pace was victimized recently when he came home to find his family's mobile home vandalized with anti-gay graffiti. A former Flagler Palm Coast High School student was reportedly harassed by his teacher, who told rude homophobic jokes and mocked him in class for his sexuality.
Why aren't people speaking up against this? Students like Amber Hatchet are, and being punished for it, too. Hatchet filed suit against her school district, saying her principal threatened her for her anti-bullying efforts. She was threatened with disciplinary action if she decided to participate in the National Day of Silence (a nationwide effort that uses silence to protest the literal silencing of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people due to harassment in schools), and when she participated anyway, she was suspended.
So, with constant harassment and punishment for trying to stand up for what's right, how will things ever progress?
I think that Flagler County Schools could benefit from having specific rules that keep LGBT teenagers in Flagler County safe from ruthless bullying, instead of ignoring them. If Flagler County should lead the way in anti-bullying efforts, they would really make a difference.
Jada Tirotta
