Federal leaders gathered Friday at the elementary school once attended by Freddie Gray to celebrate a $2.3 million federal grant aimed at helping students recover from the aftermath of the traumatic events.
U.S. Senator Ben Cardin and U.S. Rep Elijah Cummings were among visitors to Matthew A. Henson Elementary School in Sandtown-Winchester, one of 13 schools in West Baltimore that will benefit from the Promoting Student Resilience grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
The grant was created for school districts to launch behavioral and mental health programs for students who have experienced trauma after demonstrations of mass protests or civil unrest. Gray's death last year from injuries sustained in police custody sparked rioting in Baltimore. The education department identified Baltimore, Chicago and St. Louis as the latest recipients of the grant on Thursday.
At Matthew Henson Friday, the lawmakers and other officials praised school leaders for pursuing resources to help students recover from the unrest, and President Barack Obama's administration for continuing to invest in the city.
The grant is the second this year that federal officials have awarded the Baltimore school system to help affected students move past the emotional and physical toll of Gray's death and the subsequent protest rallies and rioting.
"There are many causes of the problems we have in our community," Cardin said. "We have to deal with behavioral issues. These are serious issues and require us to have the resources to do something about that."
The school system will use the grant to boost mental health services for students and training for staff and parents. Thirteen schools will receive a full-time mental health clinician: Booker T. Washington Middle, Eutaw-Marshburn Elementary, Excel Academy at Francis M. Wood High, Furman Templeton Preparatory Academy, Gilmor Elementary, Harlem Park Elementary/Middle, Historic Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Elementary, John Eager Howard Elementary, Matthew A. Henson Elementary, Mount Royal Elementary/Middle, New Song Academy, Renaissance Academy, and William Pinderhughes Elementary/Middle.
The schools are located in neighborhoods surrounding the epicenter of rioting and looting on the day of Gray's funeral in April 2015. Since then, government and private groups have made new efforts to combat long-standing issues of poverty, violence and economic disinvestment in those communities.
Cummings said the grant will benefit roughly 4,000 students. He said many local children suffer from some of the same socio-economic disparities as Gray, who was severely lead-poisoned and struggled in school.
"We want our children to have a normal life," he said. "Sometimes I look around and I see so many of our children going through the traumas of Freddie Gray….That's not normal."
Gray, who grew up in Sandtown-Winchester, attended Matthew Henson and returned there to visit a teacher just weeks before he was arrested a few blocks away in Gilmor Homes. He died from neck injuries he sustained while in police custody.
David Guzman, principal at Matthew Henson, said he is appreciative of the grant but that mental health is just "one piece" of the challenges that need to be addressed. He said he hopes to see services expand to include other offerings such as after-school programs.
"Sometimes it pains me at 3 o'clock when I have to send my babies home. I want to keep the school open to 7 p.m.," Guzman said. "I want us to think bigger about the wraparound services for West Baltimore schools."
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