We received an invitation to join Congressman Bobby Scott’s “Teen Summit On Youth Violence” in Portsmouth, Virginia today. The summit was outstanding!
Of course, prior to the start of the summit, we had the opportunity to hand deliver the details of the plight that is facing our students and educators at John Rolfe Middle School directly to Congressman Scott and Margaret Keator, his Senior Legislative Assistant.
The auditorium of I.C. Norcom High School was filled to capacity with students, educators, congressmen, judges, assemblymen, community activists, parents, children, grandparents, police officers, Norfolk’s superintendent of schools, and many others. They all came out in support of Congressman Scott’s H.R. 3846-The Youth PROMISE Act.
For nearly two hours, we heard stories of how students felt unsafe in school and how wrong it was for the adults to permit it to be that way. Students spoke of expecting adults to protect and take action on their behalf, but nothing was done. One student on the speaker’s panel shared that her mother always told her that there are three places that a child should feel safe; home, church, and school. A majority of the night was spent exploring why our homes, schools, and communities are not safe, nurturing, and positive environments for our children.
Congressman Scott shared that “…a large percentage of this country’s minority children are on what the Children’s Defense Fund refers to as a “cradle to prison pipeline”. We are not preparing our children for the 21st century, we are preparing them for death and the grave. The goal of The Youth PROMISE Act is to create a “cradle to college pipeline” to take over the “cradle to prison pipeline.”
One extremely disturbing statistic was shared by Honorable Judge Jerrauld Jones, former Director of the Virginia Department Juvenille Justice and current Chief Judge, Norfolk Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court, 4th Judicial District of Virginia. He shared that a predicting factor that is used to determine projected prison populations is the number of students that cannot read by the third grade. The statistics support that students that cannot read by the third grade are more likely to be caught up in the juvenile and criminal justice systems for a majority of their lives. Congressman Scott went on to say that “by third grade you learn to read, after that, you read to learn, reading is fundamental!”
After attending this summit, speaking with Congressman Scott and his team, hearing young people literally “beg” for safe schools where they can learn without being bullied, scared, or hungry, UGOTNERVE is even more commited to advocating for schools like John Rolfe, it’s students, and its TRUE educators that put children, NOT politics first.
This summit was a sobering reminder of how easily the lives of our children can be destroyed beyond repair by irresponsible, uncaring, incompetent, heartless adults that, as one student shared tonight, do not have the “heart” to help us. One of the panelist shared that the greatest area of violence, confusion, crime, abuse, neglect, and suicide is within our middle school ages. She went on to share that there are middle schools in our state that contribute to the incarceration of our children, ages 10-15, with no remorse or interventions. They make no effort to be proactive or take preventative measures to stop the cylce of “cradle to prison pipeline”.
Congressman Scott went on to share that it is time to stop “playing politics”, saying things that sound good, providing good sound bites for the media, but failing to take any meaningful actions to save our children from being victims of this “cradle to prison pipeline.” Sound familiar?
As we shared the highlights of the summit with our parents and educators, we all renewed our commitment to stand firm for our East End Henrico children in order to stop what many of Henrico County Public School’s leaders are promoting, that “cradle to the prison pipeline”, with no regard for providing the quality instructional leadership and resources that our children need in order to switch pipelines and take the ride to college instead of the prisons.
UGOTNERVE has spoken to many parents from John Rolfe Middle Schools, and has even heard parent after parent speak out, in vain, at the school board meetings. They are PLEADING with the central office administration and school board to intercede in order to stop the destruction and downward spirals of their children as a result of their interactions at school. Students that come from good, disciplined homes come to school and find out that the discipline that they experience at home does not exist at school. Parents find this out as well, despite the promise that Mr. Morton makes in Henrico’s Student Code of Conduct.
We must continue to stand and fight so that eventually, the “cradle to prison” pipeline in Henrico and all over the world is closed permanently!
The school and parent relationship should edify, empower, and educate our children; not destroy, kills, and steal from them. Until Mr. Morton, Mr. Montgomery, and the others begin to see that we are in a fierce fight for the souls, minds, and spirits of our children, they will continue to politicize and egocize this conflict for equality and adequacy in education that parents and educators, like Ms. Lucas, are willing to loose everything over, even their jobs…all to spare our children from traveling down the wrong pipeline.
If we don’t DO it, if we do not DEMAND it, if we do not FIGHT for them, then no one will!
Read the entire report for yourself: http://www.childrensdefense.org/site/PageServer?pagename=c2pp_report2007, as one mother told her two daughters during the summit, this could easily be you if you do not make the right choices and if I do not help you make the right choices!
KEEP UP THE NERVE!
