Parents React To High Crime Motels On 11th and Garnett

Scott Griffith has been the principal of Lewis and Clark for eight years since the building transitioned from a middle school to an elementary school.

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“What I tell teachers who are considering coming here to work is there are a lot of kids that are going to be okay with a mediocre teacher our kids need the best.”

Griffith says that many of his 528 students deal with poverty and trauma and because of that, the stakes are even higher in the value of their education.

“For a lot of our kids their future is already laid out for them and it’s a future of perpetual poverty and that’s just how it’s going to be unless something happens to make a difference and that’s what we’re trying to do,” he said.

Griffith says that his staff strives to provide a safe and encouraging environment for students to grow and support them.

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“In east Tulsa, there are parents who are working hard. They want something better for their children,” he said.

With the school bell ringing and the line of cars stretching along the front of Lewis and Clark, we connected with parents who share the same concerns about the high crime near the school and in the neighborhoods surrounding 11^th and Garnett.

“Everything is tougher here. It’s good sometimes the police in here cuz the kids are walking around,” Maria Laderos, said.

“The location leaves a lot to be desired. So you have an amazing school at not such an amazing location,” stressed, Samantha Buckley, a mother of two girls who attend Lewis and Clark.

"There are children at stake here. There are children in these neighborhoods, there’s a school. It’s all about money for them whereas for the parents and the people living around here it’s about the kids,” Buckley added.

“The other day my son was walking up to the store he was on his hoverboard – he runs over a little needle and he was like, “Mom, what is this?” and it was, you know, they shoot up a needle,” Mother of five, Brittney Overstreet told us.

She says the area is unsafe around 11^th and Garnett that she is even too afraid to let her children go outside to play.

“They get mad because I won’t let them go outside to play but I try to explain to them that it’s not a safe area over here,” she added.

Griffith says his school has lost about 10% of his student body over the past couple of years but stressed that it was difficult to say if it was related to the increase in crime.

“I have children who have seen dead bodies being hauled away. I have children in my school who have been orphaned due to crime, that’s hard when you stop and think about it,” Griffith admitted.

He stresses that we have to do more not only to make the area safe for those living and working in the area but for our children.

“I think every child deserves to grow up feeling safe,” he added.