Filed under: teenagers, violence | Tags: chicago, dixon elementary, erika prince, fenger high school, illinois, keenan reno, mccain, obama, tawanna for, teens, townhall, violence
While much attention was paid to Barack Obama passing the magic number of delegates for the Democratic nomination for president, another not-so-magic number was passed in Chicago: 24 to 25. That is, sadly, another Chicago Public School student who was killed this school year. You might have missed this story because it didn’t involve gangs or some brazen shootout. It was an accident.
19-year-old Keenan Reno was shot and killed when a gun his friend was playing with accidentally fired. The friend, 16, is in custody, and his identity has not been revealed because of his age. Unfortunately Reno’s death has not warranted any of the outcries or press conferences we have come to expect from our leaders and officials. Why? I thought one of problems they thought was at heart was the proliferation of guns in our communities. Why aren’t we asking ourselves where and how a 16 year old got a gun? Could it be that a story such as this is just a blurb on their and the media’s radar screens — a story not juicy enough to hide behind in order to prop whatever legislation or agenda they might have to Springfield or D.C.?
Left after the headlines is a family who will have to live through the nightmare of burying a child and another family who will live through the nightmare of possibly having their child behind bars, not to mention forgotten like all of the teens who end up behind the trigger of a gun.
While Keenan’s teachers are left to console a room full of classmates and friends, students at Dixon Elementary will have to look elsewhere.
On the same weekend Keenan Reno was killed, Dixon teacher Erika Prince was shot and killed while sitting in her car — the victim of mistaken identity. Although I did not know Erika Prince, I feel a small loss. For a brief time I was junior high student at Dixon, and for five years I lived less than two blocks away on 82nd and Eberhart on Chicago’s South Side. I don’t have many memories of my brief time there as a student, but I can recall the countless days seeing children, fresh out of school, either walking up and down our block or along 83rd Street. It’s a good school that has produced many students who have completed college and found success in various careers. Like many schools that go unnoticed, it is the epitome of a neighborhood school.
People care about it. People have a stake in it. People like Erika Prince, who taught special ed students and was a devoted mother to her children. A couple of weeks ago, the Chicago Tribune ran a story on the difficult task teachers face when having to console students when one of their classmates is killed by violence. In the case of Erika Prince, we have to ask ourselves, who will console the students when, sadly, their teacher cannot?
The week of tragedy extended itself into the west suburbs with the murder of 17-year-old Tawanna Ford, the innocent of a shooting caused by an exchange of words between her boyfriend and others. From those interviewed, Tawanna sounded like any normal teenager: shy, good personality, hard-working, goals in life. Her principal described her as the type student a school would want more of, instead of just a few.
But like Keenan Reno, Tawanna doesn’t get a front page, a press conference or a march to Springfield or D.C. If we are to seriously address violence and our youth, we cannot pick and choose these deaths like fashion or houses, making one important because of the way one died, or making one less important because they happen to live in the wrong zip code or wasn’t a CPS student. Every life is precious, and every death is a tragedy.
What are we going to do?
In this long, long soap opera that is the 2008 presidential election, we’ve yet to see a serious debate on education and curbing youth violence in communities not just in Chicago but across the country. Nominees John McCain and Barack Obama are interested in doing a series of townhalls or Lincoln/Douglas-style debates. If they actually go through with it, I invite them to come to Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit, Newark, New Orleans, or countless other cities and have a townhall about how we can come together to help our youth.
Is that a pipe dream? Maybe. But I thought 2008 was about change.
Filed under: article, schools, teenagers, violence | Tags: chicago, college, cps, engelwood, medill, violence
This week marks a week since the murder of student Marcus Greer. Why is this notable? Because that means a CPS student has died in a month. This has been something left out of the wall-to-wall coverage the rise in violence has been receiving lately. Although it is a small accomplishment, it is one worth noting. It will be small victories like this that lead us on the way to taking back communities and bringing about real change.
On that note, I wanted to spotlight more positive acts local teens doing. Joshua Pollock recently wrote about John Hope High School senior LaTreal Peterson. Peterson was recently a recognized as a Gates Millenium Scholar and plans to attend the University of Wisconsin Madison in the fall to study business. He sees providing more opportunities for young people in their schools and communities as a way of curbing violence.
Filed under: Miscellaneous, article, event, organizaion, research, teenagers, violence | Tags: career, fair, malcolm x college, poetry, slam, spoken word, tap roots, violence
Courtesy of MySpace
I wanted to share with readers the spoken word poetry of Tap Roots, Inc. They are a West Side group who performs for students, offering an uplifting, positive message that they hope will spark the minds of at least one child in the audience. Recently, they performed for public school students at the 10th annual Citywide Health Careers Fair. The following piece was dedicated to the parents of young victims of violence and the victims themselves.
Filed under: Miscellaneous, article, chicago, legislation & initiatives, organizaion, teenagers, violence | Tags: cbs, chicago, gangs, jesse jackson, jesse jackson jr, kennedy king, michael pfleger, poverty, rufus williams, schools, town hall, violence, wbbm
Disappointment cannot describe the feeling I had watching the CBS 2 Chicago/WBBM radio town hall on violence in Chicago. It has been literally a minute since it went off the air, but I couldn’t wait until the next day to write about this. Here you had two of the largest media outlets in Chicago giving light on a hotly debated subject, and they drop the ball. How did they drop ball you ask? With panelists and speakers ranging from Jesse Jackson, school board president Rufus Williams, Congressmen Jesse Jackson, Jr. and Danny Davis, police superintendent Jody Weis, Rev. Michael Pfleger and parents of murdered CPS students, what or who possibly could have been left out?
The youth
The youth
The youth
Two hours of rhetoric, grandstanding, insight, and ideas about what is wrong with young people today, how can they be saved, why are so many at risk, but not one youth is given the chance to speak on their own behalf. The irony of this is that right outside Kennedy King College, where the town hall took place, you will find young people between 55th and 79th & Halsted breaking curfew, hanging out on the streets. For every youth out there who are gang banging, dropping out of school, or dying, there are many more trying to do something with their lives and able to offer as much — sometimes more– insight than the leaders who continue to speak on our behalf. Each time the camera cut into the audience, I scanned it to find at least one young face but could see a person who looked like they were under 25.
Despite popular belief, young people have to something to say. They always have. We just don’t listen. We put up the wall at the first difficulty and conclude that they’re “different” or “not how they used to be back in my day.” But as a recently vilified pastor once said, “different does not mean detrimental.”
Besides ignoring the young people, regular community residents were left out of this talk. I’m talking about the residents who aren’t part of an organization. If we’re going to open up this debate, we need to knock down the doors and let everybody in. Forget about the cameras. Forget about the lights. Forget about the ad sponsors. And, hopefully, Mayor Daley can take part too.
In fact, here is my idea for a town hall: Mayor Daley and these same leaders go on a citywide tour of community centers, high school gyms and auditoriums , churches, etc. — maybe even Soldier Field if the demand is there– and open the doors to everybody in the communities. When I say everybody, I mean everybody. Community groups, youth, parents, gang bangers, addicts, the homeless, the tired, the rich, the poor and the huddled masses. Open the gates and just have at it for as long as everyone is willing. Find out why these kids are dropping out? Why are the gang bangers joining gangs? Why are addicts doing drugs? Why have some people stopped caring? We don’t have to worry about commercial breaks or interrupting CSI: Miami and Criminal Minds.
If there was one person at the town hall who brought this point home, it was teacher and lecturer Dr. Adolph Brown, III. Brown walked around the room until the very end disguised as the stereotypical young male many are used to envisioning: doo-rag and baggy clothes. Brown encountered only stern looks and silence from most of those in attendance, not an ounce of outreach or gratefulness for this disguised young person making the effort to attend this forum. As Brown revealed his suit and true identity under the baggy clothes, the audience was left silent and befuddled from their hypocrisy. After two hours of talk, Brown challenged them to action.
Will they answer his call? We’ll see at the next town hall.
Filed under: article, chicago, event, legislation & initiatives, organizaion, research, schools, teenagers, violence | Tags: article, chicago, communities, daley, gangs, ny times, school, violence
The paper of record brought its attention to the second city with a recent article on the deaths of Chicago students and the steps being taken to prevent more deaths from happening. It offers a very detailed overview for those who might not be familiar with the story, but ultimately stakes out familiar territory. We get the impassioned quotes from schools CEO Arne Duncan and Mayor Daley, balance from an expert and community resident, and, last but not least, a student. In the end, the article asks nothing or challenges the reader or those being interviewed. I felt led on by the beginning of the article because I thought the focus of the article would stay with the community groups who are escorting Crane Technical High School students to school, but by paragraph four it had already moved on. Left out again is the fact that many of these shooters and gang members are as young as the victims or/and drop outs. Left out again is the mention of students trying to organize and lead in their communities, rather standing idle as politicians and other leaders do the talking. Left out again are more community groups and churches who are marching and leaving their doors open late to save those on both sides of the gun. Not given enough depth is the issue of poverty and outside factors that are at the root of this violence.
Props to CLTV and Alexander Russo for shining a different light.
Filed under: chicago, event, legislation & initiatives, schools, teenagers, violence | Tags: benito juarez high school, chicago, chicago police department, chicago sun-times, chicago tribune, church, crane technical high school, crime, daley, peace, ruben ivy, violence
This past weekend saw one of the most violent outbreaks across the city in recent memory. Reports vary on the total number of people who were shot between Friday and Sunday. The Chicago Sun-Times reports 37, while the Chicago Tribune and AP lists 32. What’s the same in each story is that six of the victims died, ranging in age from 18 to 65. The two youngest victims, Melvin Thomas and Rhonell Savala, were shot and killed right outside Free Salvation M.B. Churck on the South Side Friday night.
All but two of the shootings are reported to have been gang related. Police blame the rash of shootings on the warmer weather and gang tensions in different neighborhoods. They cited the last two years of the very same weekend to illustrate the cyclical nature of the violence. During the same weekend in 2007, 19 people were shot, while in 2006 the number was 21.
The shootings came in the wake of new report by the Chicago Police Department that showed crime down in the city for the first three months of the year, including a 1% drop in the murder rate in March of this year compared to March 2007. Police plan to deploy additional officers to what they call hot crime spots.
Overshadowed by the violence was the effort in communities to try and prevent it. One such event took place Saturday morning at Crane Technical High School, where student Ruben Ivy was shot killed one month ago. Students and other volunteers worked to clean the area around the high school and other designated blocks. In a press release, Ernest Gates, of the Near West Side Community Development Corp., stated:
“If something happens that involves a Crane student, there is a lot of negative coverage. The good kids are saying, ‘Hey, what about us?’ All the attention is placed on the kids with problems, but the vast majority of students are there to get an education and get on with their lives.”
Also on Saturday, La Dia de Los Ninos 3K Walk/Run was held to assist students at Benito Juarez High School with their future college education.
In addition, an e-mail campaign has recently surfaced calling for a citywide peace fast. No particular organization is mentioned, but it said to be the word of local-area ministers and clergy.
CITYWIDE PEACE FAST
‘A City United for Peace’
April 21st – 23rd, 2008
6:00am until 6:00pmThirty-one youths have lost their lives to gun violence this school year. Hence, the faith community of Chicago will corporately pray for unity and peace in our communities. Pastors and faith leaders are calling on all believers to deny themselves of something that will be a personal sacrifice from 6:00am until 6:00pm Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. You may deny yourself of food, meat, soft drinks, cell phones, or television but whatever you select should be something that is a sacrifice for YOU. Mark 9:29 says, ‘Some things come only by fasting and prayer!’ Therefore, we will fast and pray together as a city for three days for three specific things: 1. Provision, 2. Protection, and 3. Prevention. Jeremiah 29:7 says ‘Pray for the peace and prosperity of the city’. Violence anywhere is a threat to peace everywhere, so please JOIN US!
By all means, PLEASE share this email with everyone you know!
Thanks,
Proper Planning Prevents Poor Progress
Filed under: chicago, event, teenagers | Tags: arts, event, poetry, school, teenagers
I always appreciate using the arts to spread a message or just as a canvass to release, so here goes the details on a cool event coming up this weekend:
Yollocalli and Radio Arte present an Open Mic Night dedicated to the 23 young victims we have lost so far during this school year. Speak your mind and share your talent with the community as we all reflect on the recent violence with Chicago Public School youth. Poets, Spoken Word Artists, Musicians, Artists and kind hearted people are encouraged to attend.
FRIDAY APRIL 18th, 2008
4:00 – 8:30 PM
1401 West 18th StreetFor more information please call (312) 455-9455 x 203, or tania@radioarte.org.
Filed under: teenagers, violence | Tags: chicago, murder, schools, teenager, va tech
Marcus Greer was described by his family as being a good kid. After transferring to an alternative high school, he began to turn his life around, working hard to be a B plus student.
Sadly, he will be remembered for being the 24th Chicago Public School student killed this school year. Greer was shot and killed Tuesday night on Chicago’s West Side. What makes Greer’s death even sadder is that it came on the eve of the one year anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings.
A 17-year-old boy was recently taken into custody in connection with Greer’s death. This brings to light one of the startling issues being overlooked in the coverage of student deaths: the fact that many of the victims are being killed by their own peers.
The Chicago Sun-Times published an article today, following up with the mother of Blair Holt, who was shot and killed last year protecting a classmate from gunfire on a CTA bus. The interview comes on the heels of the murder of Albert Vaughn, who was beaten to death with a baseball bat Saturday night. Both Vaughn and Blair Holt attended Julian High School. Worth a read.
Filed under: chicago, teenagers, violence | Tags: blair holt, chicago, chicago sun-times, cta, violence
The Chicago Sun-Times published an article today, following up with the mother of Blair Holt, who was shot and killed last year protecting a classmate from gunfire on a CTA bus. The interview comes on the heels of the murder of Albert Vaughn, who was beaten to death with a baseball bat Saturday night. Both Vaughn and Blair Holt attended Julian High School. Worth a read.
