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South vows to address neighbors' complaints By JULIE SWENSEN Students littering, loitering on lawns and not yielding to elderly people on sidewalks were some complaints by neighbors attending a community meeting Thursday night at South Medford High School. Student leaders initiated the forum and sent out 200 letters to neighbors, inviting them to attend. About a dozen showed up, and others sent in questionnaires. The concerns were met by a resolve from students and school administrators to work to curb the problems. "We really want to be good neighbors. That's really what provoked us to have this forum tonight," teacher and coach Dennis Murphy said. "Although we can't stop everything, we're going to do the best we possibly can." Among the solutions offered were: Putting more garbage cans in the neighborhood. Sending cards to neighbors with a number they can call at the school if they see students doing things such as littering and smoking. Neighbors were told that if they called the school about trash, students on detention would go pick it up. Asking Medford Police Department community service officers to patrol areas more often where kids are seen smoking all day. Having students produce a video to be shown at school addressing problems such as littering in the neighborhood. This isn't the first time neighbors have complained about students' behavior. Several years ago, people complained to the school board about teenagers not only littering but also having sex in broad daylight. But neighbor Elizabeth von Radics said Thursday night the problems today aren't as bad as they were in years past, when students were picnicking on people's lawns. She thinks the presence of a community service officer has helped. Another neighbor, Herb Wing, said that while he's gathered students' trash over the years and taken it into the school office, he hasn't taken any trash to them this year. "It hasn't been nearly as bad," Wing said. Forum attendees also said they realized the problems are caused by a minority of the 1,700 students on the campus. Not everyone spoke of problems. Neighbor Brent Poulton said he came to the forum to say how delighted he was to live in the neighborhood. "It's a breath of fresh air to have kids walking down these streets," he said. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA