On high note
Singer helps others after bully beatdown
A TALENTED Brooklyn songstress who was the target of a brutal beatdown by a jealous group of rivals won’t let her voice be silenced.
It’s been four years since Shacara McLaurin was smashed in the face with a padlock stuffed into a sock and beaten by a crew of teens determined to prevent her from performing at a high school talent show.
McLaurin, now 22, summoned the courage to visit the scene of the crime last week — determined to fight through the panic attacks — and face her past.
“I just felt like I was mentally reliving it again,” McLaurin said of her initial feelings about the trip.
The Brooklyn Academy High School grad was leaving a voice lesson on April 1, 2011, when five fellow female students attacked her, leaving her with gashes on her face, a bruised jaw and hearing loss.
The talent show was canceled, and McLaurin, who once tried out for “American Idol,” has still not fully recovered from her physical injuries.
Only attack ringleader Aaliyah Smith, now 21, was sentenced to jail time after she pleaded guilty.
Four other mean girls who joined Smith in the attack — Decory Fletcher, Brittany Williams, Ashanti Garner and Chazmia Morrison — pleaded guilty and were sentenced to five years’ probation and a youthful offenders program.
Morrison, 21, is the only one who ever apologized, McLaurin said. She sent an apology letter through her lawyer. The Daily News was unable to directly contact any of McLaurin’s attackers.
Williams, 22, is now a nursing student, according to a woman who identified herself as Williams’ mother, but would not give her name.
“I just pray for them,” McLaurin said of her attackers. “I just wish them the best and hope that they learn from their experience.”
But the resilient vocalist’s thoughts turned to the future after she returned to the Bedford-Stuyvesant street where she was set upon.
“I always knew exactly how I wanted my future to be,” she said. “It took a turn for a while because I was so discouraged, but I said, ‘I’m better than this.’ ”
Now a junior at Nyack College studying music education, McLaurin has turned her darkest hour into a light to lead others.
The unflappable songbird founded a youth gospel choir Chosen Generation and Victim2Victorious, an anti-bullying organization.
McLaurin’s experience inspired her to write a song about overcoming hardships called “This is My Story.”
“I’m doing something that I didn’t think I would be able to do,” she said. “I’m writing from a place of my past, present and future.”
The Chosen Generation choir will perform her song at a July 24 showcase.
Some of the 25 kids in her choir, ages 8 to 18, face challenges like autism and Crohn’s disease, McLaurin said.
“They are still able to do the same thing that I did,” McLaurin said, “pick themselves up and keep going and be healed
as well.”
It took a turn for a while because I was so discouraged, but I said, ‘I’m better than this.’
— SHACARA McLAURIN