The city funded the program for the first time in Fiscal Year 2022.
WASHINGTON — D.C. advocates say violence between kids starts as they’re heading to school and in class. Multiple programs are working to mentor students out of that cycle.
At Ingenuity Prep in southeast D.C., it starts with a “good morning!” from David Flythe — Mr. Flythe to the kids.
“We make sure we get kids to and from school safe,” Flythe said, as students interrupted him for a fist bump.
He’s one one of about 200 Safe Passage workers, according to a spokesperson for the city.
They post up at intersections near D.C. schools to keep kids out of trouble.
The city funded the program for the first time in Fiscal Year 2022, making it possible to pay these workers.
One of Flythe’s partners in preventing crime is Maria Johnson. She helps him monitor Livingston Road and 3rd Street SE every morning.
“And that’s why we out here…to make sure they safe, because there is a lot going on in our community, a lot of trauma that we can’t ignore,” Johnson said.
DC Police data shows that in 2021, out of the 247 public and charter schools listed that year, about 90% were within 1,000 feet of a gun crime.
There were 12 of these crimes alone near Ballou High School on 4th Street SE, where Mecca Bradley goes to school.
“I could just be coming to school, somebody get jumped, and then I got to go to school, think about it,” Bradley said. “It was hard for me to maintain, think about my work.”
Now, she can relax a little on the way, because supervisor Tanisha Murdon’s got her back.
She sees Bradley and shouts a “Good morning queen!” with a hug.
“Kids know when someone really cares about them. Kids know when you really appreciate and you love them,” Murdon said. “And, they will open up, and they will be more comfortable to be able to express what they are dealing with.”
They carry what they’re dealing with through the school doors.
“Their normal is hearing gunshots, hearing people angry, seeing people fighting are their norm, so we’re just trying to break that,” program manager Victor Battle said.
At Kelly Miller Middle School, School Resource Officer Shamika Griffin helps to lift the load.
“We build a bond with these kids,” she said.
So much so, she said, that some of the girls she’s gotten to know have even asked to come to her wedding.
Some people think SROs do more harm than good for students, saying they fuel the school to prison pipeline.
The DC…
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