When Violence Rocks A School

The John Marshall School is located in the Bowdoin-Geneva section of Dorchester. The community suffers from the pangs of poverty: low employment, high drug use, related gang violence, and a severe lack of community resources. Hundreds of families struggle to make it through the day. Many send their children to the John Marshall School.

Last week, a young man was shot inside the school's gym at 6:30 PM. He was chased outside where he was shot two more times. The victim survived. The shooter got away.

A week earlier, within a stone's throw of the school, a man was killed execution-style at noontime. Last spring, teachers found a man shot to death in the school's parking lot.

The Superintendent, members of the School Committee, police officials, and others visited the school last week, meeting with families and teachers, offering comfort and a commitment of resources. The John Marshall School needs more help because children cannot learn and teachers cannot teach when a school resembles a war zone. There is too much trauma.

The City is working hard to address these problems and some days it must seem like the hill is very, very steep.

While the officials were walking through the school, they came upon a large group of senior citizens, quietly working with individual students who struggle with reading. These are Experience Corps members, 25 in number, and trained as literacy tutors. Last year, they volunteered more than 7,500 hours to the Marshall School. These seniors are real heavy lifters.

They have been coming to the John Marshall School for seven years, day after day. The principal, Theresa Harvey-Jackson, knows each by name and by his or her own personal story. There's Manny and Hertisene, Ricki, and George, and 20 others who are of the community, ranging in age from 50 to 90. Many walk to the school, some take a bus or use the RIDE. A few need a cane to get around, and they have ailments that would slow down most people half their age.

But they show up, ready to move the proficiency needle forward. They show up when it's cold, in the rain, when there is ice on the sidewalk. They show up when violence erupts, which for most people would be a legitimate reason to stay home. But it would never, ever occur to them to stay home. They love the school, the teachers, the principal, and mostly, the kids. They live in the community and are examples of the hope that resides in every neighborhood. They want the children to succeed and believe that they can. Nothing keeps them away.

This is very good news at a time when we could all use some.

Thank you, Manny, Ricki, Hertisene and George, and all of your teammates: You make the very steep hill in our city a little easier to climb.

Happy Thanksgiving.



To learn more, please visit www.generationsinc.org.