By FULLER ROYAL

Approximately 200 people sat in Central Middle School’s cafeteria Thursday night as more than two dozen residents, political leaders and law enforcement officials shared their concerns with the escalating gang and drug activity in the neighborhoods around the school.

Throughout the civil and relaxed forum there was applause and some partial standing ovations for speakers who scored points with the group, including Superior Court Judge Ola Lewis, who asked folks to go with her to meet with the gang members one-on-one.

Last week, Whiteville City Schools Superintendent Danny McPherson called for the forum following growing problems with gunfire in the city park adjacent to the CMS campus.

CMS Principal Beverly Boone welcomed the group, which was a fairly equal mix of black and white parents and leaders.

McPherson opened the forum.

“Tonight, we find ourselves as one community,” he said. “Everyone must join our efforts. These criminal acts are not separated by color and they are not separated by neighborhoods. It exists in all areas.”

McPherson said that while some communities had chosen to ignore their problems, Whiteville has chosen not to.

“Your being here shows that this is important to you,” he said. McPherson explained what the schools are doing to make students safer, including the installation of campus-wide surveillance cameras at CMS, Edgewood Elementary and Whiteville Primary schools. Whiteville High School and North Whiteville Academy, the city’s alternative school, already have camera systems in place.

The school system is also asking for an additional police officer to work a delayed shift at Central to cover afternoon activities and evening games.

Whiteville City Councilman Jimmy Clarida spoke next.

“The city is doing some work on this,” he said. “It has the community’s interest at heart. The park is back open with better patrolling and is being monitored more closely.”

Clarida said that the community needs to assist the police. “You are the eyes and ears of the community. You see what (the police) don’t see. You hear what they don’t hear. Trouble is not just in one area. It’s spread out all over the city. I’m concerned with the east side as much as the west side.”

Andy Anderson spoke next, acknowledging McPherson for the leadership role he had taken with the effort.

“We have had several passionate conversations on this matter,” Anderson said. “Dr. McPherson said we don’t need to move the school. We need to move the community to act.”

Anderson said that a group of ministers cancelled its March 29 Wednesday night church meetings and instead met at CMS where they prayed and came up with some ideas.

He said that the ministers decided first that everything is possible and that “some of the things we are dealing with are the symptoms of long-running problems.

Closing the gap

“We need to close the gap that separates members of these communities from the American Dream,” he said. “We need to support out city government more. It’s lonesome on Tuesday nights until something happens. We really need to support our officials, check on them and offer our support.”

Anderson said that if it takes a village to raise a child it also takes a village to raise the standards.

Anderson recalled how large the city’s former community policing program was and the former junior police league, which allowed youth to ride on patrols with officers.

“The police used to walk by and know the names of the guys on the streets,” he said. “But that takes money and creativity and it takes a community receptive to that idea.”

Anderson called for more community meetings like the Thursday night forum.

“There are some folks here I haven’t seen in two years,” he said.

He said that if the residents don’t become better stewards of the community, the community would no longer exist.

Anderson apologized to the group for failing to remain active in community affairs after losing his race for mayor.

“You don’t need a title to have a position in this community,” he said. He urged church members to extend their presence beyond Sunday school and see who’s not attending.

“We need to get involved with Communities in Schools and adopt a school,” he said, adding that the community needed to take charge of the challenge of its young African-American males and to be role models for them.”

“These kids are in trouble,” he said. “They are no longer in school but they are still our children. We can remember when they were all headed in the right direction. It’s time to reach out, not just in enforcement, but also in healing.”

Become involved

District Attorney Rex Gore spoke next, urging parents to become more involved with their children.

“You need to occupy your children’s free time,” he said. “Spend time with your children and plan activities they will enjoy.”

Gore said that Whiteville has always had a good sports program. He urged parents to set limits for their children so they can learn what is acceptable behavior.

“Learn to say ‘no’ and mean it when you say it,” he said. “Become informed parents and set a good example. Our children are too valuable to let the gangs take them away.”

Call law enforcement

County Commissioner Amon McKenzie said that he was once the last person in his neighborhood to realize that drug dealers were operating 200 meters from his house.

“Once I found out, I did what I needed to do,” he said. “The fear of retaliation should be the farthest thing from our minds.”

He said if anyone sees strange people or vehicles or activity in their neighborhood, they should call the sheriff or police departments, anonymously if necessary.

“They will be happy to check it out and it lets people know they are being watched.”

McKenzie called for a return to the day when communities were filled with Community Watch signs.

“We don’t have to tolerate these things.”

As for a parent’s duties, McKenzie said, “My house is my house. I checked any thing I needed to. I knew what my children had. The only privacy my kids can have is when they have their own house or pay their own rent. It starts with us. We have to clean up.”

McKenzie said the community can get rid of its first drug dealer and then another and then another.

“If we don’t get rid of them, then we go from two locks on our doors to 10 locks,” he said. “I remember a day when all we needed on a door was a little latch and that was just to keep the wind from blowing the door open at night. The benefits (of reporting) are greater than the consequences.”

Gang members

Judge Ola Lewis, who had the day before spoken to students at CMS, said she has asked the police chief and the sheriff to give her the names and addresses of all of the suspected gang members.

“We don’t need to leave them out of this process,” she said. “I don’t want to raise gang activity and glorify it. But, if we don’t give them a voice at the table and look them in the eye and tell them that they are killing our children, then it doesn’t matter what we do.

“I want the ministers to go with me to these addresses,” she said. “I want the police chief and the sheriff to go with me. I want the DA and the council members to talk to these gang members. I want the principal and the superintendent to go with me.

“They need to know that we have zero tolerance for their behavior and that they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and that we love our children.

“At the same time, we need to know why they exist, what they’re searching for and what they need,” she said. “We have to sit down and talk to them.”

Too many suspensions

Parent Sam Baldwin said he thinks a big part of the problem is kids being expelled from the high school.

“Its not right for kids to be put out of the school when they do something wrong,” he said. “They don’t go back. When he’s separated from school and his friends, he feels like he’s worthless.”

Grade standards

Parent Franklin Thurman said he was upset that the school board had dropped the minimum grade standards for athletes. For many athletes, that was the only thing that kept their grades up.

“You can play sports no matter how (uneducated) you end up,” he said. “I always told my boys to work harder. I hope we go back and raise these standards.”

Thurman said that when his children were in school, they occasionally would talk about gangs they had heard about.

“I didn’t believe that there were gangs around here,” he said. “Now, I do think there’s more drug activity.”

Thurman said that the guys on the corner don’t grow the drugs. They don’t have ships or helicopters. He said that the suppliers of drugs need to be sought out and prosecuted.

“When you all leave here tonight, you will leave me on the west side of Whiteville,” he said, adding that he wanted to see stricter regulations in the city and county and not have people who don’t live in his neighborhood driving through all the time.

Just like New York City

One minister, who did not identify himself, said that he is seeing the beginnings of what he had witnessed in New York City. He told Lewis that he would walk with her.

“These kids are under the influence of evil spirits,” he said. “They need love. Instead of jail, let’s grab them. If you don’t do something, it will affect your children.”

He urged pastors to hit the streets and to leave the comfort of the four walls of their churches.

“Let’s be real, wake up,” he said. “It’s going to spread. Wake up, wake up, wake up.”

Parent Debbie Wilson asked for a return to the old mentoring program the schools had for its students.

“Our children deal with a lot more than we dealt with,” she said. Wilson said that there are a lot of undereducated parents. “We have children having children.”

Peggy Barry, a Communities in Schools volunteer at Central, urged more residents and parents to become involved on the campus. “If just half of you were here at Central for one hour each week, you would see changes.”

Whiteville City Schools Board of Education member Greg Merritt asked everyone to pray for at least five minutes each day.

Living in the area

Stephanie Fountain, a single mother of four, lives in Columbus Court Apartments, which is one block from the school.

“There are some really nice people here,” she said. “But, I keep my kids right on my front steps and there’s only so much you can hide from them.”

She said that when the police department was looking for some of the gang members, she actually felt safer because the police were present so much.

Outsiders a problem

“It’s people who don’t even live here who make it bad,” she said. “People from the other side of town come to our side of town because they hear that there’s fast money to be made in the project.”

She said that for the most part she hardly sees the police. She said it’s tough to be a single mother who works.

“It takes prayer morning, noon and night and during snacks,” she said. “I can’t let my son go too far this way because he’ll get shot and I can’t let my daughter go too far that way because she’ll get pregnant.”

“This place hasn’t seen sad yet,” she said.

Speaking next was Michelle Campbell, a single mother of six, who is working on her college degree. She is also the aunt of one of the youth arrested last week in connection with the March beating of a youth in the West Whiteville Park.

“I’m not condoning any kind of gang activity,” she said. “I tell my kids not to get caught up in this. My nephew is under $50,000 bond. When I think of (the beating) I hurt.

“I enjoy living here, I love being out in the country, but there’s not much for kids to do. I understand the concerns. I minister to my nephew and ask him ‘What will you tell your friends you’re doing when you’re 25

McDonalds cannot pay the bills.’ We do need to get together and get to these children.

“I am not going to label them gang members. If we don’t get to them, then what will we have when they reach 35? Do we want them to die and go to Hell?”

The Rev. James Smith said he was concerned with the number of parents who have problems with substance and alcohol abuse. He’s also concerned with the young age of so many parents. “I love being a father more than anything else I do,” he said. “Let’s help the parents who have issues.”

Thankful for police

Marvin Pierce, a resident of Baldwin Circle, thanked the sheriff’s and police departments for the jobs they do.

“I’m a Korean War veteran, a single parent and I raised three boys,” he said. “I demanded that they get A’s in conduct.”

Pierce said there’s a lot of drug trafficking in the area.

“I live a stone’s throw from the park,” he said. “I will protect my family. I know the law. I will protect my house.”

Theresa Lennon, a substitute teacher for both the city and county schools, said one of her concerns is the way the boys dress.

“They come to school with their pants dropped,” she said. “We need to take a look at how our boys come to school. They have to take baby steps with their britches down. We, the parents, need to take control of our children and not let our children take control of us.”

Parent Bessie Williams said her primary concern is with children who are victimized by bullies at school.

“It makes me mad as fire when our children are victims in this and other schools,” she said. “Parents, put your computer to rest and sit down with your child.

“It’s time to help kids have stuff to do after school,” she said, adding that if someone is smart enough to sell drugs, then they are smart enough to go to college.

Children left behind

“No Child Left Behind is a joke,” Williams said. “Plenty of children are being left behind. If we have time for sports then we have time for one-on-one (help). Where I used to live in the city, that block is gone. You have not seen anything yet. You will see a lot.”

WHS 1990 graduate Rico Best called for more involvement from the community with its youngsters. He asked for more support from the City of Whiteville as well as the Whiteville City Schools.

Visit the school

CMS teacher Michelle Strickland said the teachers are trying really hard.

“Our principal, Dr. Boone, said that when we’re visible, the kids are less likely to get into trouble. We are encouraged to be visible.”

She urged residents and parents to come to CMS during the day and also be visible. She said that when the students see that, they know that the teachers are not alone in their concern for them.

School uniforms

Parent and volunteer Nancy Thurston recalled serving on a jury for a gang murder trial
“Six kids could walk in here tonight and look normal,” she said. But gang members would know all about them by the way they were dressed.

She called for a uniform policy in the school.

“Bandanas are gang-related,” she said. “The designs mean something to gangs. We can take this out of our schools to a certain point and maybe we’ll have the chance to save a few more of them. They won’t be able to entice kids with the dress and symbols.”

Doesn’t want to teach

Thurston said that her daughter, who will graduate this year, had spent all of her childhood dreaming of becoming a school teacher.
“Now she doesn’t,” Thurston said.“ What happens, we can no longer get teachers because they’re scared.

“We need to so something now,” she said. Prayer and unity are fine but we need to do something.”

Boone followed up.

“I am the very proud principal of Central Middle School,” she said. “I came here with high expectations and values and goals. I want the best for your children and the school.”

She said the office is always open and she welcomes any parents with questions or concerns.

McPherson thanked the participants and said that a uniform policy will be part of tonight’s meeting of the school board.