By Denise Holley
Nogales International
Published Tuesday, August 10, 2010 2:22 PM CDT


The superintendent of the Little Red Schoolhouse has ordered a seven-foot-high fence topped with barbed or concertina wire to be built around the facility as protection against border-related crime.

James Cruice, superintendent of Santa Cruz Elementary District No. 28, said he wants a barrier between the school and the Santa Cruz River, where people and contraband move north from Mexico, he said.

And so on Friday, as teachers hauled books to their classrooms in preparation for the start of classes Monday, workers assembled the fence behind the school complex on Duquesne Road at State Route 82, approximately 3 ½ miles north of the border.

Unlike schools in town, “we’re close to the border, we’re totally exposed here,â€