ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – People on both sides of a sometimes confrontational meeting held Friday to discuss security concerns at Florida School for the Deaf and Blind seemed fired up on the issues at hand.
Reports of recent increased suspicious activity near the school led school trustees to call the public emergency meeting. School police said that over the past month or so, there have been several reports of suspicious people in a public alley that skirts by a girls dormitory a few hundred feet off campus. There were reports of a man taking pictures of students while in an unknown car.
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"We don't have a problem with you guys. Y'all have a problem with us for some reason," one resident told the school trustees.
Residents said the reports are just not true. They accuse police of harassing them, calling everyday activities suspicious.
"I would disagree with some of those circumstances that we're able to articulate by providing the police reports that speak for themselves," school Police Chief Jerry Chandlee said.
While the school denies the allegations, the people at Friday's meeting pointed to proposed legislation that would allow the school to buy nearby properties without the owners' permission, a process called eminent domain.
Many complained the school was exploiting its safety concerns to take over the public alley, which connects walkers to the water. Residents believe the school would then try to take over their homes.
"You give them an inch, they take a foot, then a yard, then a mile," resident Melinda Rakoncay said. "This is how they've been acting for the last 30 years with everything they do."
Those at the school say the students' safety is their No. 1 concern, and they say the alley is an issue.
"I hope that we can work together to make a good solution for the protection of the community and FSDB," said Chris Wagner, chairman of the board of trustees.
While the trustees say there's more to do, and that includes peacemaking, they voted unanimously Friday to install a fence to separate the alley and the dorm. Construction on the fence began later in the day.
The board is scheduled to meet again Feb. 10.