I am an educator who has spent my career working with underserved children in the greater Baltimore area. When I retired, I joined Pathways, a non-profit tutoring organization. Our organization has tutored over 350 children from Baltimore and Baltimore County over the last nine years. My observations in the light of the Freddie Gray incident and what followed are based on what I have experienced in my work ("Six officers charged in death of Freddie Gray," May 1).
A 5th grade student came to tutoring with RIP written on his arm. When asked about it, he responded that his brother had just been shot and killed the day before. He said, "It's all right," Of course he was grieving in his own way, but I had to tell him that, in fact, it was not all right. He never shed a tear.
A mother whose son had been in the program for a couple of years had to withdraw her son to send him to another state to live with his grandmother because it was too dangerous in Baltimore. A woman called to re-register her daughter because she had done so well as a result of our help in previous years. She was currently experiencing homelessness but was trying to reconnect with a program that showed some promise for her daughter.
Several of my middle school students shared that their math teacher never taught and just disappeared for several weeks. A full-time substitute was never found and during this time, they watched movies and, at times, managed themselves with no supervision.
How are the children to interpret these events? In the first case, life is fleeting and therefore the future was questionable and without hope. In the second, the city is so dangerous that if you have the means, you get out! The third, one can only hope that you are blessed with a parent who can look to the future even under the worst circumstances.
And finally, even in the schools that are really trying, life is not all it's cracked up to be. If it were, why would this valuable time be thrown away due to poor management? Maybe the schools are more warehouses than hope for the future.
This morning, I watched Toya Graham and her son speaking on Charlie Rose. I heard her speak to the environment in Baltimore. I saw her son trying to articulate the peer pressures and reasons he felt compelled to act. All I could think of is that there is a good chance that this mother will be interviewed again in a few years. This time, however, her son will not be there.
Stephanie Kimmons, Phoenix