The city of Monroe is in the national spotlight once again and not for a good reason. On Aug. 9, 24/7 Wall Street released an article stating that Monroe was ranked the eighth worst city to raise a child. According to their article, for every 100,000 residents there are 1,187 crimes reported as well as 958 aggravated assaults.
While this may be shocking to some, others found the information to be in line with the town they live in.
Annabeth Seal a sophomore dental hygiene major and Monroe native said, “Honestly I wasn’t really surprised. The crime rates are horrible. I thinkthe reason why most of the crime is going on is because they aren’t being taught values.”
24/7 Wall Street also shared that these crime stats were the highest for any metropolitan area in the U.S.
According to them, the crime rates aren’t the only astonishing numbers in Monroe. Graduation rates are below the country average. Preschool enrollment is bellow 48 percent and the rate for graduating high school is at about 81 percent.
With such low performance percentages from schools, LaTronna Hill a senior psychology major says it can’t be the parents fault Monroe is ranked among a list of worst places to raise a child.
“I blame the government and the city officials. Growing up, my family has always pushed me so that I won’t get stuck here. I love my city, but I wouldn’t raise my child here. Just because I know how it is being a child and being limited to opportunities,” Hill said.
Articles like the one posted by 24/7 Wall Street do worry the citizens of Monroe but such information has to be taken with a grain of salt.
The information regarding enrollment in preschool, and graduation from high school came from the 2016 American Community Survey from the U.S. Census Bureau. It’s a two-year-old survey. Crime rate stats are from the FBI’s 2016 Uniform Crime Report. They are also two years old.
Other students like Morgan Yelton a freshmen pre-occupational therapy major commented that she has lived in Monroe for 12 years and has never felt in danger. Yelton states that each city has good and bad parts and there are many places that are safe and numerous good people in the Monroe area.
“I feel it’s all on how you take care of your city and home, if it wasn’t safe do you think we would walk around at all hours of the night on campus?” Yelton questioned.
While this new information about Monroe’s violent crime rates, low graduation rates, and low enrollment rates might be upsetting, the city has made progress in recent years to better these numbers. Crime rates around campus are fairly low for the area according to the University Police Department.