To the Editor,
I am writing as a retired schoolteacher. When I retired from teaching, I did not retire from caring about children.
In 1972, the Mississippi Legislature passed a law to restrict alcohol from being sold less than 100 feet from school, a church or a funeral home; this is the minimum and not necessarily a desirable or an optimal distance.
To make the law stronger, schools are not allowed to waive this restriction, although churches and funeral homes may if they desire.
The way around this law was to pass an amendment which specifies that the law applies except in Senatobia in a building owned by the city that was leased to the school district as a bus shop.
The distance from the school building to the bus is 85 feet. To further complicate the matter, the fence separating the bus shop property from the school property is 11 feet from the nearest classroom. There are plans to place a boxcar somewhere on the property. We are not told where, but if it is placed against that fence, it could be only 11 feet from the nearest classroom.
Yes, this does mean that our town is the only place in the state where alcohol can be sold and consumed so close to a school. Are our children less deserving of the state’s protection than children in every other part of Mississippi?
-Ouida French
Senatobia, MS
