The News reported this week that the Mission Hill Problem Properties Task Force is currently in talks with area schools, including Northeastern, to establish a restitution fund for Mission Hill residents to claim monetary compensation when their property is vandalized, with the assumption that it is caused by college students. While the amount of money Northeastern would be required to donate per year is fairly small, it doesn’t seem right that students are being blamed for all the damage done to residences on the Hill.

Since Northeastern has a large percentage of students in the Mission Hill area, the school would be expected to donate about 40 percent of the overall fund – between $1,800 to $2,000, with the possibility of having to replenish the fund throughout the year. This isn’t a large amount compared to the six digit price tag of every student’s education over the course of four or five years, but its the principle of the matter.

We are loud on weekends, we drink and we act like idiots. But when was the last time you saw a kid walking home from a party stop to throw a rock through a window?

The task force stated things like damaged cars, broken and dirty fences, and a stolen bird bath as incidents that would qualify an individual to receive money. These may have been caused by college students, but there are also a lot of young kids on the Hill. Without knowing for sure who caused what damage, it seems like universities would be heading down slippery slope by taking responsibility for anything bad that happens.

In fact, a lot of incidents that have happened on the Hill have nothing to do with students.

On Oct. 25 the Boston Globe reported on a shooting in the Mission Main housing project, no one involved was a student. In addition, on Oct. 22, the Globe reported on a teenager unaffiliated with any university getting arrested for breaking into and stealing from cars in the Mission Hill area.

We may be annoying, but most of us don’t deserve to be called destructive. How does the task force know whether it was a student or one of these other individuals causing damage? Certainly the individuals involved in crimes appear more destructive than we do.

Forcing the university to pay for damage done by a student doesn’t teach anyone anything. If residents can prove it was a specific person causing damage to their property, the student should have to pay. If they can’t prove it, why should we be blamed?

Vandalism happens everywhere. It’s not specific to college cities and towns. Residents of Mission Hill need to stop looking to universities as the cause of all the problems in the area. There needs to be another way of dealing with the difficulties the area faces than immediately blaming students.