A few years ago I witnessed my family’s car getting broken into. I was pulling an all-nighter, when I heard a car door open around 3am. When I looked out my window onto my tucked away residential street I saw a group of three adolescents rifling through my family’s car.
This was hardly the first time our car had been broken into, and it was certainly not the last. Since then a phone, a USB car charger and many more inexpensive items (luckily) have been taken.
Recently, my neighborhood’s Front Porch Forum has been riddled with crime reports:car break-ins, packages stolen, people trying to break into houses, bikes getting stolen, someone even stole an ashtray from a car.
The rise in crime is not just happening in my neighborhood. According to the Burlington Police Department, Burlington has seen a 25% increase in crime from 2022 to 2023.
The increase has been felt by most, if not all, Burlington residents, and has especially been weighing on the Burlington High School students and staff.
Norah Miller ‘24 has had her car broken into on two separate occasions. Luckily, the stolen items included only her car’s registration and the oil cap located under the car’s hood.
However, Miller says her mom’s purse was also stolen, but this time from inside their house.
“I went out at 1am to put the trash out and I forgot to lock [the door],” Miller said. “In the morning, [the purse] was gone.”
The increase in crime has not only included property, but also threats to physical safety.
In the winter of last year Julia Neubelt ‘24 was walking in front of the Burlington Technical Center when a woman approached her repeatedly yelling “Did you f—— do this?” in reference to some red spray paint on the side of the BTC building that had nothing to do with Neubelt. Unfortunately, with a bus blocking her way they could not cross the street to avoid the woman.
“As I get closer, she moves towards me,” Newbelt said. “And then she just reaches out and punches me, not in the face or anything, but in the arm.” After Neubelt told her to stop, and walked away, the woman continued to follow her. After Neubelt again walked away in an attempt to de-escalate the situation, she soon saw that same woman getting assaulted by two other seemingly homeless men. Fortunately Neubelt was able to escape the situation mostly unharmed.
This crime increase has also in some ways numbed a lot of the Burlington community.
While mentioning an instance where an out-of-town classmate came in, distressed about the sighting of a naked man walking down Church Street, Neubelt noted the differences in the reactions of BHS students and students from out of town.
“It’s just weird to see how desensitized Burlington High School students are to things like that happening on Church Street,” Neubelt said.
This surge in crime has also impacted students, as schools have changed their policies to increase student safety. For example, Neubelt recalled how last year they were able to leave BTC at any time, but now there is a set 15 minutes allowed for the students to leave in order to keep them safe.
But it’s not necessarily the school’s job to keep students safe outside of school. Still, something needs to be done because what is happening outside of the school is affecting students in school.
I can handle my car getting broken into, but it’s not right that all students are expected to handle these problems on their own. I don’t know what needs to be done. This is a systemic problem that is going to require a systemic solution. The school can’t do everything, but we need to keep needles off of our walkways, we need to advise students on how to handle situations where people accost them and we need to give students the tools they need to stay as safe as possible.
