School reopens after shooting
Counseling available at Mervo High as classes resume today
With gray skies over Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School, Rita Winstead dropped off her grandson at 10:56 a.m. in front of the same steps where another student was killed Friday.
“This is a very emotional issue,” Winstead, 62, said. “This is a child, a child that I knew personally. A child that I cared for. I cared for his family. That could have been my grandson.”
Mervo High School didn’t require attendance Tuesday, the first scheduled school day following a fatal shooting there Friday.
Around dismissal time, right before the long Labor Day weekend, student Jeremiah Brogden, 17, was shot and killed by another teenager from a different school, police said. On Tuesday, a judge ordered the 17-year-old suspect to be held without bail.
In an effort to help students, staff, faculty and community members grieve and make sense of the incident, Mervo offered optional counseling for two and a half hours Tuesday.
Students will return fully to classrooms Wednesday with staggered arrival times based on grade level. The school posted on its website that additional support will be available for the rest of the week.
Winstead said that after a weekend of processing grief with friends and family, her grandson, a football player who shared the field with Brogden, was ready to talk about how he’s feeling following the death of his peer. Winstead declined to give her grandson’s name.
“He’s here today. He didn’t want to do it over the weekend, but he’s comfortable at Mervo,” Winstead said. “These are people that he’s familiar with. Some of his best friends are right here at Mervo, children and adults.”
Sophomore Kiyre Transou also attended Mervo’s counseling Tuesday. He said he’s already been going through a lot with the recent death of his cousin. Though he didn’t know Brogden, Transou was nearby
when he was killed.
“I was right there,” he said, pointing to the front of the school.
Transou was waiting for the bus when he heard the gunshot.
“I didn’t really know him,” Transou said. “It just messed me up mentally because I’ve already dealt with death.”
Asia Gibson, a freshman at Mervo, said she felt OK when returning to her school’s campus. She showed up for counseling Tuesday alongside her dad, Brandon Gibson.
The younger Gibson said the counseling offered was different than other therapy she has experienced before, but it still helped her feel better. The only similarity was that she could sit and talk to whoever she wanted to. Asia Gibson said they drew and wrote uplifting messages. She drew a black candle with the words “Black is a color of power and strength, and you have to be strong for him.”
When dropping off Asia, Brandon Gibson said he felt concerned about his daughter’s mental health and physical safety.
“I have a lot of concerns about that day,” he said. “I was a little confused why the school didn’t go into lockdown after.”
Winstead said she wasn’t concerned about her grandson’s safety while dropping him off at school. She added that she gave him the choice of switching to homeschooling or another high school, but he declined both options.
In this instance, Winstead said, she doesn’t feel the school is responsible for Brogden’s death. She pointed to the resources Mervo provides, including school police officers.
“I worry every day. I have no choice but to worry. But it’s not because of Mervo, it’s because of the times that we live in,” Winstead said. “This is a sad, sad problem. This is as devastating as it can get, to personally know a child to be shot at school of all places.
“He was where he was supposed to be.” The student arrested at the scene was enrolled at Achievement Academy at Harbor City High School, an alternative public school in the Hamilton Hills neighborhood that serves about 400 students in grades 9 through 12. Outside of the school around dismissal time Tuesday, some teens discussed the incident while awaiting rides home.
Eric Brown shared a physics class with the student, he said. The 18-year-old didn’t know his classmate well, but said the teacher took time Tuesday to discuss the shooting.
“We need to dig deeper into peoples’ personal lives,” he said. “A lot goes on before
8:30 a.m. when people enter the building.”
Adults who want to help defuse violence on campus before it happens should prioritize more programs for young men, follow through on promises to young people and avoid passing judgment on them, Brown said.
City Councilwoman Odette Ramos showed up at Mervo on Tuesday to offer her support for the school in her district. She said she also planned to attend a community meeting for Mervo families Tuesday evening.
Ramos said action needs to be taken concerning guns in the city. She wants to know how the teenager who police say shot Brogden got his hands on a firearm.
The councilwoman said the school’s principal is asking for action from the community. They are looking to reinstate a citizen patrol program where community members
can visit the school during drop-off and pickup times to watch over students.
“We’re going to need the community’s help to prevent this from happening again,” Ramos said.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott also made an appearance at his alma mater. He stood on the front steps looking out, and later that morning he joined hands with Mervo community members for a prayer circle in front of the school.
Mervo alumnus Brandon Armstrong, 21, said he stopped by the campus to check on some of the teachers.
“It’s extremely troubling,” he said, “especially [since] a tragedy like this happened on school grounds.”
Meanwhile, the Mervo Mustangs football team gathered separately Tuesday so the teammates could talk, Winstead said.
In between the grief counseling session
and meeting with the team, Winstead’s grandson called to catch her up on his day. Winstead said her grandson found the counseling “wonderful” and extremely helpful.
Brogden’s peers will return to classes Wednesday without his “big smile,” as Winstead described it. Despite the ongoing grief, Winstead said students have to go back to school, including her grandson.
“Of course it’s a shock and it’s devastating to him, but he has to go back to school. He knows that, I know that. If he doesn’t go back to school and finish, what kind of life is he gonna have?” Winstead said. “There are over 1,800 children that go here. Each of them deserve a future, each of them deserve an education, and that’s what Mervo is here for.”