King's College Student Mugged (bill, office, lessons)

[EnyaGirl]

ROFL!!!!

[King's College Parent]

As a parent of a freshman at Kings College, I am terribly disappointed to read these blogs regarding the area my daughter now lives. I heard on the news about the shooting at Walmart, read about the armed robberies and now this mugging of a student. When visiting the school I wasn't at all fimiliar with the area, but was reassured by the recruiters, hotel owners, and their employees as well, that there was absolutely no crime in the area. I was warned by the locals of the drug problems, but told they were "up in the mountains". The few security guards I did speak with advised my daughter to never travel alone, which I thought was a normal precaution. Little did I know the town I was investing in was so questionable. Now I am afraid for her and her friends and feel like I was mislead by the college. I want to know now, what their plans are to protect these students from futher harm.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by King's College Parent

As a parent of a freshman at Kings College, I am terribly disappointed to read these blogs regarding the area my daughter now lives. I heard on the news about the shooting at Walmart, read about the armed robberies and now this mugging of a student. When visiting the school I wasn't at all fimiliar with the area, but was reassured by the recruiters, hotel owners, and their employees as well, that there was absolutely no crime in the area. I was warned by the locals of the drug problems, but told they were "up in the mountains". The few security guards I did speak with advised my daughter to never travel alone, which I thought was a normal precaution. Little did I know the town I was investing in was so questionable. Now I am afraid for her and her friends and feel like I was mislead by the college. I want to know now, what their plans are to protect these students from futher harm.

The mugging I posted about and that you read about here happened in 2008. Wilkes-Barre is honestly a mixed bag with some neighborhoods being better than others. I always felt safe ON campus. There are indeed some seedy areas just north and east of campus, though, over by North Street and Madison Street.

[King's College Parent]

Apparently we were notified of another one that happened last night. I'm sure you will be hearing about soon.

[theatergypsy]

Originally Posted by King's College Parent

As a parent of a freshman at Kings College, I am terribly disappointed to read these blogs regarding the area my daughter now lives. I heard on the news about the shooting at Walmart, read about the armed robberies and now this mugging of a student. When visiting the school I wasn't at all fimiliar with the area, but was reassured by the recruiters, hotel owners, and their employees as well, that there was absolutely no crime in the area. I was warned by the locals of the drug problems, but told they were "up in the mountains". The few security guards I did speak with advised my daughter to never travel alone, which I thought was a normal precaution. Little did I know the town I was investing in was so questionable. Now I am afraid for her and her friends and feel like I was mislead by the college. I want to know now, what their plans are to protect these students from futher harm.

Can we assume from this that there was never a mugging in Vineland?

You are, presumably, an adult and if you believed that there was "absolutely no crime in the area", you are easy prey for the next snake oil salesman who comes along.

The security guards you spoke with advised your daughter to "never travel alone". Security guards? Good advice? That's the plan to protect the students. It's already in place.

There are students at both schools, King's and Wilkes U.; people who live in the city; who work in the city; who come to the city to attend concerts and festivals and the Farmer's Market and to shop. That adds up to thousands of people and they aren't being mugged in large numbers. Stuff happens and no one can be prepared for every eventuality, but being prudent about when and where and with whom you travel can significantly reduce the odds of becoming a victim.

Your daughter is, for all intents and purposes, an adult. I hope you taught her enough to operate wisely in her environs, and I certainly hope she won't become a victim.

[genlilliana]

Well, if you all want to get this area off of welfare and lighten up the crime statistics...

You could find a way to work together on creating...JOBS! Economic opportunities! Education and re-education for the unemployed. Welfare reform. You know...get to the root cause of the socio-economic issues that are resulting in the criminal activity. Increasing police and penalties is not ever going to resolve the root cause of the issue - it's only going to add to it. It is common knowledge that jail time does not equal reform. You put them in, they get out, they re-offend (or not in many cases) - jail time does not increase productivity at all. It's why its become a much discussed problem recently across the U.S.

I was appalled when I moved from CT to PA last year that the school teachers in this area don't bother assigned homework...they said it's because the kids don't do it. This is exactly the type of defeatest attitude that is crushing NEPA! I moved from a town of mixed socio-economics and the kids that struggled were given more help; additional opportunities to make changes and more guidance. Without stepping up and showing the way...they will never know another! We need to stop giving in and start getting out of the box and resolving the root cause of the issues.

And, although I do agree that some people abuse the system, most do not. Picking on the poor without giving them some sort of opportunity to improve (and or reform as the case may be) is not going help in resolving the problem(s). There is crime in EVERY city across the U.S. and none of this is unique to the NEPA area. Other cities just do a better job at managing it...

[mr.magoo]

I was involved Investigating Welfare Fraud during the first 5 years of my Law Enforcement career...
I headed a 6 person Pro-active Squad that took to the streets ferreting out Abusers of the system rather than waiting for someone to report them .
The biggest abuse was called 'Absent Parent' in the home aka 'Baby daddy'

We were a pilot project that was given 6 months to cut down the massive abuse of taxpayer dollars.
Statistics proved we saved the County 4 million+ dollars in that time...We were budgeted to continue on, giving all the best gear, cars, vans, and armament we needed.

we were written up in the newspapers, other Counties in the tri-state areas emulated our efforts and I was often sent to train the new units in Surveillance techniques and other finer points of curtailing Welfare abuse.

The Freeholders loved us, County admin too.

Who would have thought we would get resistance from of all entities, The Welfare Board!
For every deadbeat we removed from the system and prosecuted, the Welfare Board lost matching Federal Funds to run their enterprise...

simply put, The staff was in proportion to the numbers of people receiving assistance...so some of the Politically appointed Admins. and Middle Mgt. tried everything to stymie our efforts.
They tried but failed.

Yes, not very one on Welfare abuses the system, there are scumbags and leeches, and thugs, and I loved every minute on Court Date 3rd Friday of the month testifying at Grand Jury presenting our cases and putting their sorry arses in jail.

There are many more who really needed it and appreciated, and for these people, I and my Investigstors bent over backwards to help.

One quick statistic though, as I moved out of Welfare Fraud to another unit, A Fugitive task Force that included US Marshall office, FBI, State, Local, County and Municipal Police and The Immigration and Naturalization Service...
When we were looking for a Fugitive we always started our Investigation through the Welfare office to catch a lead...Friends, fam, boyfriends, girlfriends because a whopping 70% of all the fleeing Felons we were chasing were on Public Assistance at one juncture of their lives.

[Magritte25]

Originally Posted by theatergypsy

Can we assume from this that there was never a mugging in Vineland?

You are, presumably, an adult and if you believed that there was "absolutely no crime in the area", you are easy prey for the next snake oil salesman who comes along.

The security guards you spoke with advised your daughter to "never travel alone". Security guards? Good advice? That's the plan to protect the students. It's already in place.

There are students at both schools, King's and Wilkes U.; people who live in the city; who work in the city; who come to the city to attend concerts and festivals and the Farmer's Market and to shop. That adds up to thousands of people and they aren't being mugged in large numbers. Stuff happens and no one can be prepared for every eventuality, but being prudent about when and where and with whom you travel can significantly reduce the odds of becoming a victim.

Your daughter is, for all intents and purposes, an adult. I hope you taught her enough to operate wisely in her environs, and I certainly hope she won't become a victim.

TG summed up my feelings nicely as well. Students are mugged in the areas of Yale and Princeton too. Are we to assume no one should go to those schools either?

[mr.magoo]

Yes Magritte,
I live twenty minutes from Princeton...muggings abound..mostly illegals employed in the area doing the muggings...
sexual assaults too...mostly commited by students on other students.
Crimes do occur in Ivory Towers or Towers of Ivy.

[Gerania]

Originally Posted by King's College Parent

As a parent of a freshman at Kings College, I am terribly disappointed to read these blogs regarding the area my daughter now lives. I heard on the news about the shooting at Walmart, read about the armed robberies and now this mugging of a student. When visiting the school I wasn't at all fimiliar with the area, but was reassured by the recruiters, hotel owners, and their employees as well, that there was absolutely no crime in the area. I was warned by the locals of the drug problems, but told they were "up in the mountains". The few security guards I did speak with advised my daughter to never travel alone, which I thought was a normal precaution. Little did I know the town I was investing in was so questionable. Now I am afraid for her and her friends and feel like I was mislead by the college. I want to know now, what their plans are to protect these students from futher harm.

"Little did I know..." Apparently. Did you do any research before deciding to send your daughter there?