Put the new school clinic in Newport Beach, not at Rea

A clinic at Rea Elementary School is bad for a number of reasons,

including the foot and automotive traffic it will generate and the

breach of security on the grade school campus that will naturally

happen with this clinic (Closer Look, “Rea plan becomes center of

debate,” Monday).

The Feb. 4 Daily Pilot reported there are 140 convicted sex

offenders in Costa Mesa and only seven in Newport Beach. This means

that Costa Mesa has one sex offender for every 771 residents and

Newport Beach only has one for about every 11,000 residents.

Wouldn’t it be safer for the children to put the clinic in a

school in Newport Beach? We have a good bus system, and Newport Beach

is immediately adjacent to the Westside of Costa Mesa. In Monday’s

edition, the Pilot notes that Newport-Mesa Unified School District

Supt. Robert Barbot is strongly in favor of the clinic at Rea school.

How nice.

The first thing that Barbot did when he was hired by the district

was to buy a home in Laguna Hills. Barbot knows nothing about Costa

Mesa or its problems and has intentionally disengaged himself from

the community by his choice of where he wants to live.

MARTIN MILLARD

Costa Mesa