Red Alarm! Potential harms to residences of Fraser Heights!

Surrey is famous in British Columbia for its 2nd place in top provincial crime rate, especially in gun shooting, killings, and persecutions. As a result, many residences in British Columbia tend to choose live in other cities over Surrey. For example, a friend of mine is a first year commerce students in University of British Columbia. When she told her new friends at UBC that she is from surrey, her friends had immediate reaction of how bad Surrey is and they quickly suggested her to move to other cities.

   Although, Surrey is known for its high crime rate but within the area of Surrey there are many communities, some of which are recognized to be safer than the others. Fraser Heights, in particular, is acknowledged as one of the safest community in Surrey according to the survey that I conducted. Fraser Heights generally gives an impression of new, clean, neat, tidy, and warmth to newcomers. Many new immigrants chose to live in Fraser Heights because of it’s awesome environment and the great reputation of community’s elementary schools (Erma Stephenson, Dogwood, Fraserwood, and Bothwell elementary) and high school (Fraser Heights Secondary School). Numerous friends and classmates who either live in Fraser Heights or in other communities such as Fleetwood and Guildford are surveyed by me to obtain a general impression of Fraser Heights community from people who lives in surrey. Within the survey, I asked each person two questions: “Do you believe Fraser Heights is one of the safest communities in surrey? Why or why not?” and “If you are a parent searching for a community in surrey to raise your child, would you choose to settle in Fraser Heights? Why?” As I have expected, regardless of where people lives, majority of people said yes to my first question, and they would choose to raise their children in Fraser Heights than in any other communities.                         
    However, after researching the community, Fraser Heights appears to be a stereotypical community, one which has some of its own problems. As a student who grew up in Fraser Heights, I am surprised about the potential safety issues within the community. To begin with, there are teens and adult stalkers in the neighborhood. Some students, including myself, have being stopped by strangers asking for the student’s name and age at bus stops or on their way home. Marijuana houses have been discovered in Fraser Heights. To my understanding, there are at least three identified marijuana houses within a ten minutes walk from my house. Furthermore, news of a particular student or a particular group of students selling drugs is not unusual to many students. Personally, I have once overheard a conversation between a brown students and a white student discussing about when they are trading “the stuff” during lunch time. Also, within recent years heroin was once found in one of the student lockers in Fraser Heights Secondary school. Not to mention the shooting that took place last week in Fraser Heights, where one innocent person was killed.                                                                                      
   All of the sudden, Fraser Heights community may sound horrible to the public but that is not the main purpose of this article. It is meant to raise awareness to the residences of Fraser Heights about the potential safety hazard that may harm their children or friends. Moreover, I wish to clarify to residences of other communities that no community is “perfect”. Every community has its own potential hazards and it cannot be identify simply by the community’s appearance or by how the majority of people believes. Fraser Heights community is classified as a stereotypical because of its neat environment and its number of immigrants from developed countries such as Korea and Taiwan yet this doesn't mean there are no potential harm to children in the community.     
    Judging from my experience living in Fraser Heights and the survey that I conducted, I still believe that Fraser Heights is safer than other communities such as Whalley and I would choose to raise my children in Fraser Heights if I were a parent. However, I would definitely be more careful and be more precaution to my surroundings in the neighborhood after knowing the potential harms, especially if I am a student who walk home from bus stop or if I am a parent of those children who play at school grounds until dawn and walk home.