Students at a Brooklyn high school rallied for an end to gun violence this week, about a month after two students and an employee were shot and injured during a fight at dismissal time.
As news of a deadly school shooting in Nashville has dominated headlines in recent days, Williamsburg Charter High School students called for more attention to the gun violence that punctuates their daily lives but rarely makes national news.
“I forgive whoever did this,” said junior Denae Tucker, surrounded by dozens of students and staff in Justice Gilbert Ramirez Park. “But if you want to come to Williamsburg Charter High School to be a hooligan, to fight people, to bring guns, to shoot people, get out."
The crowd cheered, waving signs that read: “Guns down” and “You can’t build peace with a piece.”
Students and staff at Williamsburg Charter High School rally to end gun violence weeks after a shooting outside their school.
Gunfire broke out around 2 p.m. on Feb. 8, just as students were getting ready to go home. Kimberli D., who asked not to share her full name because she’s still afraid for her safety, said she was just about to leave school that day when she heard other students saying there was a shooting happening outside. She said she ran upstairs and told her teachers to lock the doors.
“It was very disturbing seeing kids running across and screaming and cops and helicopters,” she said in an interview. “It was very traumatic. And no one should experience that at a young age.”
Tucker remembers grabbing her coat to walk out the door when she and other students were told to go to the cafeteria for a lockdown. She said she wasn’t too alarmed until the lockdown ended, when police escorted her out, and she learned that she knew the people who were shot.
“I tried to go home and not cry, and I broke down in the hallway before I made it to my door,” Tucker said.
A 17-year-old boy, 15-year-old girl and a 37-year-old man were shot, according to police. The victims all survived their injuries. A 17-year-old who did not attend Williamsburg Charter High School has been arrested and charged as an adult.
Students and staff are circulating a petition that calls for more communication with the NYPD; more violence interrupters in schools; more funding for on-site social workers and psychologists; and more year-round jobs for young people. More than 1,400 people have already signed.
Students and staff at Williamsburg Charter High School rally to end gun violence weeks after a shooting outside their school.
The school has implemented several measures to boost security and to help students process their feelings since the shooting, including installing metal detectors and holding restorative circles. Beyond ensuring that students feel safe, Principal Jahi Bashir said he wants students to feel empowered to take action to change their community.
“This is their school. It’s their community. It’s their life,” he said. “I’m very, very glad that they spoke up.”
Multiple teens have been shot outside of city schools in recent months. Two were shot near different schools on the same day earlier in March — one in East Harlem and one on the Upper West Side. Another teen was shot outside Williamsburg Charter High School in December, and two were shot near a school about a mile away in February.
The number of youth victims and perpetrators of gun violence has spiked in the last five years, according to NYPD data. Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey testified at a recent hearing that 153 children and teens were shot last year, up from 75 in 2017. The number of youths accused of shooting someone increased from 48 to 123 in the same time period.
There have been at least 38 reports of gunfire on school grounds across the country this year, according to Everytown for Gun Safety. Firearms have also surpassed car crashes, poisoning and cancer as the leading cause of death for people aged 1 to 19.
Savannah Fox, a senior at Williamsburg Charter High School, said it was particularly upsetting that a teen was the one who pulled the trigger in this case.
“Knowing that it’s one of us that did this is very scary,” she said. “And it’s even more heartbreaking knowing that they are put inside of an environment that allows them to think that violence with guns, or violence in general, is the answer, when it’s not.”
