Man says school is a bad neighbor

Response to complaints slow, John Harrell claims

By Jason Spencer
Published: Thursday, October 4, 2007 | Updated: 9:07 am

Nobody wants a bad neighbor, but on Cherry Hill Road, one man says his battle is 850 to 1. At least that’s the way John Harrell sees it. Harrell, 65, lives across the street from Broome High School and says he’s spent years complaining about problems at the school, to no avail.

The school district, on the other hand, says it’s doing everything it can to investigate Harrell’s complaints and, if they are founded, take action.

Between school personnel, administrators and law enforcement, Spartanburg School District 3 has spent an estimated 500 hours responding to Harrell’s complaints since 2002.

“They probably have,” Harrell said, with a hint of disappointment. “It appears that they’re trying now. Before they weren’t. It’s just sad that it has to come to this. And I don’t ask anything more from any of them than to just leave me alone. But that ain’t working.”

Last week, Harrell filed a complaint with the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office against the Pacolet Middle School football team. He claims that as the team was leaving Broome on a bus, one of the players yelled out the window, “How ’bout I come over there and bust you?”

Eggs, rocks and nails?

The sheriff’s office says it turned the matter over to the school, and school officials say they found no evidence to support the claim.

But Harrell says over the last several years his house has been attacked with eggs and rocks, he’s had a window broken and nails thrown in his driveway, and he’s been threatened with bodily harm and death.

In November, he left a message with the district office stating, “When someone is hurt or killed, it will be the fault of School District 3 and the Sheriff’s Department” - a message that soon disallowed him from coming on school property without permission from Broome’s principal.

“Given that tone, we don’t want him coming after our students. He video tapes from his yard. So, it’s almost like baiting students,” said Ed Simpson, assistant superintendent for pupil services.

“It’s not a direct threat, but in today’s world, we’re not going to take any chances. But that hasn’t kept us from responding to his complaints.”

Harrell maintains that he only video tapes incidents at the school from inside his house, so the students don’t realize it.

He says he’s witnessed cars doing doughnuts in the school parking lot, drug deals, public urination, speeding along Cherry Hill Road and - what seems to be the source of most of his complaints - noise violations, either from loud music or modified (or missing) mufflers.

“They don’t intimidate me,” Harrell said. “It’s like they’re saying, ‘Look at me, how smart, big and brave I am.’ But to me, they’re stupid little cowards. I can’t walk out in my yard at night without getting cussed out.”

Simpson says the school district hasn’t received complaints from anyone else on Cherry Hill Road. He says he’s been to Harrell’s home twice, and seen some of the videos.

“Sure, you’re going to have kids that have loud mufflers,” Simpson said. “He’s directly across from the school parking lot. We’ve issued tickets, and the principal has imposed student discipline … stiffer penalties when they operate any vehicles that violate the noise ordinance, like mufflers, loud music or squealing tires. If he identifies a vehicle, we follow up and go from there.”

The school district, too, is installing cameras in the parking lot. Harrell maintains he was told that would happen months ago.

“He never acknowledges the efforts of the school district,” Simpson said. “We’ve had dozens of law enforcement checks done that show his complaints are over-stated. He said to me I branded him a liar. I’ve had to respond on behalf of the district … not saying he’s a liar, but saying he’s over-stated his complaints.”

Lt. Crystal Kingsmore was the school resource officer at Broome through early 2005, and is now over all of the resource officers in District 3. She pointed out that not all of Harrell’s complaints were against teenagers - some were against adults, particularly after hours or in the summer.

Simpson maintains they always answer Harrell’s complaints promptly: “We’re at a loss as to what else to do.”

He pointed out that Cherry Hill Road is outside the school district’s jurisdiction. But administrators, board members and law enforcement still get a barrage of calls when Harrell is upset, he said - sometimes a month will go by; sometimes, just a few days.

And Harrell isn’t likely to give up: “This school is a nuisance to the community. Enforce the law. That’s it, nothing more nothing less. That’s all it would take.”