Opinion: Youth town hall unites all to end violence

Hundreds of people filled the room and stood along the back walls before spilling out into the lobby of Des Moines’ Masonic Lodge on Monday for a youth town hall, an event spearheaded by RJ Miller, executive director of Greater Opportunities, in response to the fatal shootings at Starts Right Here charter school.

Related: The Starts Right Here triple shooting shocked Des Moines. Here's how it went down:

There were Des Moines police officers and Des Moines Public Schools personnel — the interim superintendent and a school board member.

There were politicians — Rep. Ako Abdul-Samad and Sen. Claire Celsi and Mayor Frank Cownie (but not Gov. Kim Reynolds, who Miller was told couldn’t make it).

There were mental health professionals, youth nonprofit leaders, sponsoring organizations, parents, community members, educators, and young people.

All of them uniting to address youth violence.

When any of the 20-plus youth spoke, everyone listened and applauded. When a couple were shy or afraid to talk, the community encouraged them to take a deep breath and motivated them with “you can do it"s. After Dre Guhnics shared a vulnerable moment, a man said, “Come give me a hug, bro."

It was powerful watching everyone bring “it takes a village to raise a child” to life.

People were emotional. People were passionate. People were ready for action as they shared their concerns.

More money needed for school safety

Aaliyah Battle, who created a business to sell clothes to be able to donate money to programs for youth, kicked off the conversation asking why $9 million was allocated for school sports but not school safety.

More by Rachelle:Opinion: Everyone should know the history behind Black History Month. It's applicable today.

Des Moines schools interim superintendent Matt Smith answered that, while it wasn’t enough, millions yearly are spent on software, physical plant safety, door locks and secure entrances, adding, “We've also invested in additional campus monitors. We've got as many up to about six, at some of our high schools based on the enrollment size. We also added campus monitors at every middle school this year.”

Some money spent on particular projects cannot legally be diverted to other uses, Smith said, but he invited input on what the district could do more of, less of, or not at all. One request, by 10-year-old Darin Fernandez, was for metal detectors.

An East High student said he thought that middle school was bad for safety but that high school is worse. “I can't even walk around and stand up for myself, because I don't know what they got, I don't know who they know,” he said. “And if I go home and tell my mom, I don't want her to be concerned about my safety, so I don't say nothing. I think that you should have, like, more security or even more admin. You all say budget, but is there a really a budget to safety?”

Preventing access to guns is important

Parent Steve Tyler stated that many guns used to commit crimes are stolen and that gun owners need to be responsible and lock their guns. “If you need a lock,” he said, “I’ll give you one.”

Des Moines Police Officer Stephanie Swartz agreed. “I'm gonna go back to our PIO,” she said, “and see if we can put a press campaign together about ‘lock up your guns’ and get some gun locks available free to the public.”

Hannah, a student at Roosevelt, believes that it is also too easy for people to buy guns. She's a member of March For Our Lives Iowa to advocate for laws that help make communities safer and gun access harder.

Teano Smith, founder of Tru All American Barbershop & Apprenticeship, wants adults who give guns to kids to be held accountable. He’s created an online petition to get legislators to make it a felony for the adult if a kid uses the gun to commit murder.

Lack of programming a big concern

Najah Spencer, who mentors others through groups like Sisters4Success, says girls who are sad or have problems come talk to her because she’s the only one they feel comfortable with: “We need more programs that involve people who are like me.”

Swartz said there is an urgent need for middle school programming. For example, she said, Hiatt and Harding middle schools have almost no athletic programming and very few recreational programs after school. “I see kids that’re fine in second, third and fourth. When they hit fifth and sixth, there's nothing available for them in middle school,” she said. “If we're not reaching them by fifth grade, sixth grade, that's when they're falling out.”

Others were also frustrated by the lack community resource centers, parks, and positive and safe spaces for youth.

More by Rachelle:Opinion: Conference will help 300 girls 'know their worth' again this year

When Des Moines Area Community College student Ariana Morrow said that students skip class because they feel like a lot of teachers don't care about helping them, Smith's response included that 95% of the district staff across job functions is white and they need to do better hiring faculty and staff that reflects the community they serve. He also suggested expanding the student-written class program to enable students to work with staff to create courses that they want to learn about and be a part of.

School board member Maria Alonzo-Diaz agreed with comments about the need for more teachers of color and recommended stipends for those who are seniors in college and have to work in a school for six months unpaid as part of their practicum.

Parental involvement to prevent violence before it starts

After one parent shared how he disciplined his child, youth shared passionate opinions on parenting.

Guhnics believes that parents should talk to their kids and listen more, instead of hitting them: “If you make your kid feel like they can talk to you about anything, maybe all the stuff that's happening that we're talking about would be prevented.”

Others agreed. “The way you speak to your child, it also makes them become what they are. You can't cuss your child out, you can't call them names and expect them to go to school and act like professionals,” said Helen Mims, 17. “You make them lash out at other people, you will make them go and shoot up other children. That's why you see a lot of these children shooting up, because they have anger issues that you're not trying to support at home. If you can't help your child, you get somebody else to help them.”

Battle stressed the need for parents to be active in their children's lives. “Don't overlook your kid. Your kids need guidance,” Battle said, “and they're looking at you for guidance and love and when you don't do that, they do go out to the streets and they do look at the gang bangers and they do look at other people, and they're following after them and then they're falling into the streets and that's why we are having problems in our community that we are today.”

Miller said he agreed but knows these ideas aren't a cure-all. "It's not a one-size-fits-all type of thing because you can have perfect parents in the home, but you still have to go within the community. And every community has guns, drugs, people that are in gangs and that's in your schools and stuff, too. It's hard not to get engulfed in that, but that's all you're seeing. For survival purposes, you're not gonna go and tell your parents, like, 'These kids are bothering me.'”

Violence prevention is about more than guns

There were many other issues discussed, such as mental health; racism in schools; disparities in the treatment of teachers of color vs. not of color; lack of teachers of color; higher suspension rates of Black and brown students; preventing cell phone use in classrooms; prioritization of sports and athletes over programs; student lack of awareness of existing programs, including the district-wide School Advisory Councils rolled out to every school last March which led attendees to question BIPOC representation; and allowing those with felony convictions that are not harmful to youth into schools as mentors.

More by Rachelle:Opinion: The 1619 Project IS patriotic

Miller believes all of these topics are important. “Violence is a symptom. It has to come from somewhere," he said. "If we're not dealing with the root causes of violence, which stem from lack of education, mental health, economic disadvantages, then we're not really covering violence. We know that if you starve an entire community from resources and financial stability and there's harm to where it's hard for them to have housing and different things, we know that that's going to produce crime.”

There's a lot of work for Miller to complete before future meetings, such as creating more structure to insure youth lead town halls; create an action plan that includes issues discussed and take action through the proper channels; form the Greater Opportunities Youth Advocacy Council to identify and manage issues; continue partnering with Cownie and others to host the city's youth town hall.

Follow Greater Opportunities on Facebook for more information: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087988064853

Miller also wants Reynolds and other Republicans to attend these town halls. “You're our governor," he said. "You should have been at the youth town hall. …You should listen to them before you come up with legislation so you know how that impacts them."

Rachelle Chase is an author and an opinion columnist at the Des Moines Register. Follow Rachelle at facebook.com/rachelle.chase.author or email her at rchase@registermedia.com.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Opinion: Youth speak out about more than guns at packed town hall