Students pushed for better decisions
Newport News school officials discuss program aimed at preventing violence
NEWPORT NEWS — Heritage High School Assistant Principal Terry Fenner was in the lunchroom when he heard seven shots. It was Sept. 20, 2021, nine days into a new school year.
“We do drills about what to do in a situation of a lockdown, but never in my life did we have a drill of what to do with 300 kids in the hallway,” Fenner said.
That day, a fight broke out and a student took out a gun and fired several rounds. Two students were injured.
Fenner remembers trying to calm parents who wanted to get into the building to their children. Some arrived before law enforcement, rushing over after hearing about the shooting on social media.
Fenner recounted his fear and helplessness that day Tuesday morning at during the second annual Hampton Roads Social Justice Conference at Christopher Newport University. The session highlighted a program — My Brother’s Keeper/My Sister’s Keeper — born out of what happened at Heritage.
“The thing about tragedy is, it tends to open up doors that weren’t there before, because now we understand certain things,” he said.
Fenner said after the shooting, he told division leadership that students needed to hear from people like them, who grew up in the same neighborhoods and faced similar challenges.
“And out of that was born this program,” he said.
My Brother’s Keeper/My Sister’s Keeper is focused on violence prevention. The program launched at Heritage in December 2021, and this year expanded to five high schools, helped by a grant from the city.
Bridget Adams, the youth development program
administrator at Newport News schools, said the program focuses on four areas of development — empowerment, mental health, future orientation and academics. Among the elements incorporated into the program are bringing in “credible messengers,” such as formerly incarcerated people, to speak to students. Other elements include exposing students to cultural experiences, providing them with coping strategies, facilitating college visits and job shadowing opportunities and helping students set academic goals.
“We have to educate the whole child,” Adams said. “We have to worry about making sure that they have the skills so they can make better decisions.”
Adams said the program assigns to each school a site director who plans and coordinates sessions and activities. Each school offers at least 180 minutes of programming each month, divided among sessions, field trips and other activities.
The first session, at Heritage in December 2021, brought in numerous people to have “authentic conversations” with students, Fenner said.
Among those present were business leaders, mental health professionals, former prisoners and someone who worked at a trauma center.
Adams remembered that person telling students, “I’m the person who tells your grandma you’re not going to walk again.”
She said the session had students “riveted,” and there was a large appetite for the program at Heritage, where students are now on a waiting list to get in.
Other people who have partnered with the program include David Wilson, a native of Newport News who said he spent 16 years in prison. Wilson spoke during the conference session Tuesday. He was a gang leader, and said in the years after his release from prison, he was pulled to fix some of the problems that he felt he had created in the city.
Wilson has mentored youth on a path similar to his. He said the credibility he brings to the conversations are key. He understands the pull of revenge, the culture of doing everything necessary to avoid being labeled “weak.” These are things he can address from first-hand experience, Wilson said.
“If y’all don’t understand the relevance, that people like me are needed in these schools, then you’re doing these kids an injustice,” he said.
In the summer, program officials applied for a gun violence intervention program grant from the City of Newport News, and were awarded more than $90,000 to help them expand into four additional high schools. Now, about 250 at-risk students across the division are participating in the program.
Christina Buckingham, a youth development specialist for the division, said most students surveyed about their participation agreed they felt their confidence increase and their mindset became more positive. Additionally, nearly 70% of students said one of the best aspects of the program was being able to connect with positive adults.
Buckingham said the department decided to use My Brother’s Keeper/My Sister’s Keeper as a template for a pilot at three elementary schools. They launched Level Up at Newsome Park, Sedgefield and Stoney Run in October, with about a dozen students selected to participate at each school. Among the topics they covered for the fourth and fifth grade students were the differences between reacting and responding, and a session on rules and responsibilities.
Adams said they plan to expand the program to middle schools next year.
The social justice conference, co-hosted by CNU and Hampton Roads Christian Community Development Network, continues Wednesday, with sessions on criminal justice, economic justice, education, environmental justice, housing and health equity. Attendees can register on-site at the David Student Union.