Head’s warning of gangs moving in if comprehensive school shuts down
A HEADTEACHER last night called for the community he serves not to be left to the mercy of gang culture.
Richard Baker, headteacher of Croxteth Community Comprehensive, joined angry parents to address councillors about the planned closure of the school in 2010.
Members of the newly formed "Parents Against Closure" (PAC) armed with banners and T-shirts protested ahead of the full council meeting at Liverpool Town Hall.
Mr Baker said plans to close the school and build a boys academy would do nothing for community cohesion and would make the area vulnerable so the “community would be left to the mercy of the gangs”.
Croxteth Comprehensive has been suggested for closure as part of a £400m city-wide makeover of secondary schools.
The council intends to invest money into St John Bosco Arts College which will begin to admit non-Catholic girls.
De La Salle Catholic school has also been earmarked to close with a new £20m boys academy being built on site.
Mr Baker blamed the city council in its decisions for slowly bleeding the area dry and the closure of the school would leave a “geographical desert” where parents wouldn’t have the choice of a local co-educational school for their child.
