Community Leaders Push For Conflict Resolution In Schools, More Funding For Youth Programs & Other Ways To Stem Violence
As police stood guard by the Flatbush Avenue McDonald’s where, one week ago, six teenagers brutally beat one of their peers, community leaders gathered yesterday afternoon to call on everyone from parents to elected officials to pour time and resources into our community’s youth and fighting the violence that has plagued our area.
The National Action Network organized Monday’s event, which drew a large crowd, including Al Sharpton’s daughters, Dominique and Ashley Sharpton; Councilman Jumaane Williams; clergy; civic leaders; and other neighbors. Yesterday’s gathering follows last week’s horrific attack, which was caught on a video that has gone viral, sparking worldwide outrage over the beating that was witnessed by dozens of people, including adults, who failed to intervene.
“We’re here because there’s a serious crisis,” said Kirsten John Foy, president of the National Action Network’s Brooklyn chapter. “We have violence permeating our schools; we have violence permeating our businesses; we have violence permeating our homes… We have inadequate resources to deal with these issues.”
Numerous speakers stressed this point and urged state leaders, including Governor Andrew Cuomo, to designate significantly more funding for youth programs, particularly in areas that have long been hard hit by violence.
Foy went on to say that the National Action Network plans on sitting down with the city Department of Education to encourage them to introduce a conflict resolution curriculum in the city schools, among other initiatives aimed at curbing violence among children and teens.
“What we’re seeing is a result of years and years of undealt with pain,” Foy said. ” … We need mental health resources. As pervasive as the violence is, we have got to make conflict resolution as pervasive.”
Dominique Sharpton, the director of membership at the National Action Network, echoed the call for increased resources, as well as for community members to unify and continue to work to stem the violence.
“We are standing here today to ask the community to stand up with us,” Sharpton said. “… This is not just a press conference for us – it’s a cry for unity.
“For those who want to join with us, we encourage you to start within your own homes,” she continued.
Ashley Sharpton too stressed the importance of parents’ roles in curbing violence.
“Our parents need to be there – you do not drop them off and let McDonald’s take care of them,” she said.
“It’s no rapper’s fault, no TV show’s fault – it’s our fault,” she continued. “Adults must teach their children.”
In addition to an emphasis on after-school and other educational opportunities, Councilman Jumaane Williams said it was crucial for society at large to reshape the dialogue surrounding such incidents.
“I saw a video of a beating that happened on Long Island, but they were not called savages,” Williams said.
“The first way to begin healing is not to call children animals or savages,” the councilman continued. “We try to understand what could’ve caused it to happen… We have to find out what’s going on here that our children are falling through the cracks.”
Williams went on to call on neighbors to interact more with the children and teenagers they pass on the streets daily, noting that Flatbush is a strong and tightly-knit neighborhood that wants to help its youth.
“This is not a depiction of what this community is,” Williams said in reference to the McDonald’s attack.
All of this is, of course, a long and complicated dialogue and process – and a situation that doesn’t change overnight. But, leaders said, things can change with the right formula of community and parental involvement, funding for educational and after-school programs, and mental health resources.
“This is just the beginning,” Ashley Sharpton said. “This is not just a press conference. This is our community, our people, our family. We are not gonna stop.”