BART Targets Panhandling Oakland School Students (VIDEO)

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2012/07/21/bart-targets-panhandling-oakland-school-students/



A joint CBS 5 and California Watch investigation into an Oakland school that sends students out panhandling at BART stations has prompted the transit agency to take action.

The children have become a fixture at the stations, soliciting commuters daily, often during school hours and even after dark.

After seeing CBS 5’s reports, the BART Board of Directors voted to limit the time of day the children can panhandle. They have to be accompanied by an adult and they will no longer be allowed to approach people to beg for money, as they have been doing until now. They will have to set up a table just like groups such as the Girl Scouts do.

Meanwhile, the school’s pastor has ignored a request from Oakland school officials to prove he is not falsifying attendance records. And it appears he may be attempting a cover-up, going door-to-door trying to recruit more students for his school.

14-year old Acacia said she was out in her driveway last week when a stranger drove up. Acacia told CBS 5 the man asked him for her name and number.

The man introduced himself as Pastor Robert Lacy, the same Pastor Lacy that has been dodging our cameras for months.

Acacia said the man was going door to door in her neighborhood. “He was trying to get more students to come to his school and participate,” she said.