The dismissal bell rang at 3 p.m. Hundreds of students streamed out of KIPP DC College Preparatory in Northeast Washington. Some walked to the bus stop out front, waiting for a bus to take them to the Metro a mile way. Others searched for their parents’ cars. Staff members and a security team looked on.
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Then 15 minutes after the bell, amid the typical school dismissal frenzy, a crowd formed and the worst case scenario happened. Freshman Kemon Payne, 15, was fatally stabbed Aug. 18, his third day of high school. His 16-year-old classmate was charged with his killing.
“It was an awful tragedy, and it never should have happened,” said Paul Kihn, the District’s deputy mayor for education. “We are working with our city agencies to ensure we have the proactive postures in place so these tragedies don’t happen.”
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On Monday, nearly every traditional public school and charter school student in the District will head back to their school buildings, most for the first time since March 2020. City leaders are working to ensure they can get to and from school each day safely — a process around the country known as “safe passage.”
In recent years, D.C. students have been killed on their commutes. In 2017, Zaire Kelly, 16, was shot and killed after an SAT prep class when someone tried to rob him. In 2018, Tyshon Perry, 16, was fatally stabbed at the NoMa-Gallaudet Metro station after school. And in 2019, a classmate fatally stabbed Jaquar McNair, 15, aboard an Orange Line train for unknown reasons.
After death of classmates, students say they feel unsafe commuting to school
Since 2017, the city has hired more trusted community members to supervise students on their commutes and diffuse conflicts before they turn violent. Charter schools have launched shuttle routes to take students to Metro stations in high-crime areas so students do not have to walk. And students have formed advocacy groups to push the city to make their commutes safer.
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But all that halted when schools closed in March 2020 to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Now, in addition to restarting these safe passage programs as students return to school buildings, the city is faced with a slew of pandemic-induced challenges.
While Metro is adjusting to schools reopening, some lines are still running below pre-pandemic frequencies, giving students more opportunities to form crowds as they wait for transit. Leaders also do not know what every child experienced at home during remote learning and how everyone will react to returning to school. Some students have not received regular mental health services in the past year and have not attended school programs intended to teach them how to diffuse conflicts.
When children are in school buildings, administrators and adults who supervise their commutes can monitor who has issues with whom and what adolescent spats can potentially turn violent. The adults may not yet know how dynamics have changed since schools closed.
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Students are also returning to school at a time when gun violence is rising and so many of the neighborhoods they learn in are regularly punctured by gunshots. At the same time, police say there will be fewer school resource officers due to budget cuts — an ongoing debate between some activists, parents and students who want police out of schools and the police chief who is skeptical of the move.
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“Right now, we don’t know what will happen,” said D.C. police Capt. Michael Jones Sr., a supervisor in the School Safety Division. “They could all come back to school and be perfectly fine. They could come back to school with a host of issues. We’re preparing for any scenario.”
On Monday, D.C. police and violence interrupters — people trained to get to know people in neighborhoods and diffuse conflicts before they turn violence — will be stationed near schools to help supervise students on their commutes. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority police units will have its officers trained to interact with young people out at Metro stations near schools.
For the first time, the city is launching 24 short shuttle routes near traditional public and charter schools in Wards 7 and 8, which have the highest rates of violent crime. The shuttles will transport students to and from schools and intersections near where they live.
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In September, the city will contract community organizations to station more than 200 people across the city to supervise students on their commutes. These individuals are also charged with identifying who should receive extra mental health or other services. The city says it will spend more than $14 million on this program over the next three years.
After the fatal stabbing at KIPP DC, the high school announced it would hire more security staff and stagger dismissal times to prevent crowds from forming.
More than 100 parents attended a virtual meeting after the killing about safety protocols at the school, according to Adam Rupe, the charter network’s spokesman. Their No. 1 question: How is the school teaching students to peacefully resolve their conflicts?
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The network told families that it would bring more community resources to help students with conflict resolution in the community.
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Reconnecting students to programs, including mental health services, is a major impetus for a full return to school, officials say.
“It is one of the most important reasons we are committed to a safe return to learning,” Kihn said. “It is so vital to us.”
Different schools, different challenges
Every school has its own safe passage challenges. Schools located in high-crime neighborhoods have to contend with the gun violence that surrounds them. Some schools, including KIPP’s high school, have to consider that students at multiple nearby schools rely on the same Metro station to commute. These schools often communicate and stagger their dismissal times so students don’t descend on the Metro station at the same time.
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Then there are schools, particularly high schools, that have students identified as being at high risk for being involved in violence. Violence interrupters try to build relationships with them and connect them to more mental health services at school.
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Delbert McFadden, executive director of the D.C. Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, said he is concerned about an uptick of violence near schools.
McFadden’s office runs a leadership academy at Anacostia High School, identifying the most at-risk students and offering them guidance and home visits. That program is now expanding into H.D. Woodson High School in Northeast and Paul Public Charter School in Northwest.
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McFadden said many students returning to schools have not seen each other in many months, even more than a year, which could rekindle old feuds. He said officials monitor social media to stay up to date.
“It’s important we get ahead of those issues,” he said.
At Thurgood Marshall Academy, a public charter school near the Anacostia Metro station, Executive Director Raymond Weeden said he is most worried about the gun violence in the neighborhood. Last week, he heard gunshots in the middle of the day from his desk.
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He has forged relationships with residents and businesses near the school, so they can call him if they see something amiss. Last week — the first week of the school at Thurgood Marshall — a resident called him when she spotted students hanging out at an abandoned home. Weeden dispatched staff to talk to the students and explain why it could be dangerous to gather at that home.
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“We have built a community in Anacostia where we honestly have eyes everywhere — and that’s a good thing,” Weeden said.
The killing three years ago of Zaire Kelly spurred his classmates to start an advocacy group that has pushed for more safe passage solutions.
Ra’mya Davis, a senior at Thurgood Marshall, is part of the group — Pathways 2 Power — and she and her classmates met with city officials during the pandemic to determine the most effective places to have shuttle stops around schools.
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Davis’s dad drops her off at the Metro each morning, and she takes two trains to get to her school.
“I don't feel 100 percent unsafe. You just never know what to expect,” Davis said. “It’s good when I see another [Thurgood Marshall] student. Nine times out of 10, we sit and talk and wait for the train together and walk to school together.”
Jones, the D.C. police captain, said authorities have no reason to say any problems will ensue Monday.
Still, he said, when the morning bell rings, officers will be deployed to ensure safe passage to and from school. He said extra morning shift officers are helping out.
“I’m optimistic and hopeful,” the captain said. “I believe in our youth and in our community.”
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