LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE

LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE

Saturday, April 13, 1996

EDITORIAL

LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE

School Helps Teens

Our daughter was sent to Mountain Park Baptist Academy 13 1/2 months ago, and she really likes it there. Of course, if you'd spoken to her in the first few months she was there, she'd have told you she hated it. Not because she was abused or mistreated, but because she had to follow rules. She couldn't come and go at her pleasure, skip school or sneak around and do what she wanted to do when she wanted to do it.

Mountain Park Academy has taken her from being a smart-aleck know-it-all and turned her into a lovely young Christian lady. Her attitude has changed tremendously, and so has her respect for others. She also has caught up on some much needed education.

It's a terrible tragedy what has happened to William Futrelle II, and our hearts go out to his family. But I hope this one isolated incident does not cause another tragedy - that is, ruin the reputation of Mountain Park Academy. I hope people will stop and think about the thousands of kids' lives that Mountain Park Baptist Academy has saved. I know they saved our daughter's.

If it weren't for Mountain Park Academy, I'm afraid there would be quite a few parents today who would not have their children with them now. There are several other families here in Florida who have their daughters and sons at Mountain Park Academy right now and don't intend to take them out too soon. By the way, all of their kids like it there too.

It's such a shame that good news doesn't spread as fast as bad news, because if it did everyone would have heard about all the good the Mountain Park Academy has done for so many, many teens. By now we would have a Mountain Park Academy in each of our 50 states instead of just one. Maybe then we wouldn't have so many of our young children skipping school, running the streets, joining gangs and having so many of our youth killed.

Mr. and Mrs. Ben Deiner Davie, Fla.