NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla. — Blake Jerina starts sixth grade in a couple weeks and said he always sees drug needles laying around bus stops in Suncoast Estates.
“Wear shoes, because of course, you don’t know what’s inside of it,” said Jerina.
He said he knows how to avoid the drugs, straws, needles and other paraphernalia he sees in his neighborhood, but worries younger kids won’t be as cautious.
Christy-Lee Iwanow with Benches for Babes North Fort Myers said it’s hard to hear about Jerina’s reality.
“It breaks my heart that this is what he knows about at such a young age,” she said. “He’s a child.”
She said volunteers who’ve installed benches at bus stops after two Lee County students Alana Tamplin and Layla Aiken were killed this year have noticed drug addicts hanging out at the benches in Suncoast Estates. They said they’re leaving their supplies behind.
She added drugs were a problem in the neighborhood long before they installed benches.
“Without our benches, before they were there, a child could’ve easily sat on a needle as they’re sitting on the ground. Or had it go through their toes as their walking,” she said.
That’s why David Daughtrey said he’s keeping the bench at his bus stop on his property until the school year starts.
“We brought the table up here to keep them from hanging out at the corner there,” he said.
Daughtrey said he plans to ask volunteers to wait at bus stops with students when school resumes in a couple weeks.
“They’re out here all the time waiting on these buses. And a lot of them are unattended without their parents,” he said. “So, it’s a concern that they’re going to pick up one of these pipes or a needle and hurt themselves.”
Iwanow said she’s offering a prize of school supplies to volunteers who keep their bus stop the most clean by the start of the school year.
