More than 100 people gathered in the Media Center at Scotland High School for an open forum organized by the Stop the Violence Task Force. The Stop the Violence Task Force aims to unite the community in fostering ideas to prevent violence and make Scotland safer for youth.
Tomeka Sinclair | The Laurinburg Exchange
LAURINBURG —Man wanted in fatal Laurinburg Waffle House shooting arrested in Virginia; 1 teen killed, 2 in critical condition following ATV-involved shooting in Laurinburg; LPD investigates fatal shooting of teen girl; Shooting at Laurinburg mart leaves teen dead, 1 in critical condition.
These are just some of the headlines that appeared in The Laurinburg Exchange this year, representing stories of teen-involved violence that ended with fatalities. Some of these headlines and more were displayed last week in front of a packed house inside the Media Center at Scotland High School. The cause for the gathering was for a community forum held the Stop the Violence Task Force to encourage community intervention for the youth-involved violence that has plagued the county as of late.
“We’ve lost five kids of high school age this school year … someone called and told me about the last one and I couldn’t think of the other four names. Shame on me. I could give the incidents but I couldn’t give the name,” said Adell Baldwin, the superintendent of Scotland County Schools.
Baldwin said the community has become so immune to the pain that it has “become who we are that we can’t name the kids we lost.”
“Tonight we have started something that has got a lot of momentum, and we can’t be one-and-done. It has to be a sustained mission of bringing about change,” Baldwin said.
The Stop the Violence Task Force aims to unite the community in fostering ideas to prevent violence and make Scotland safer for youth. The Scotland County Schools district has taken the initiative with the task force, but Baldwin made it clear that this is not a district-led task force but a community-led one.
“We’re going to have to remove First Baptist. We gone have to remove law enforcement,” Baldwin said. “We’ve got to remove school until we’ve become one body saying that we are sick and tired of losing our kids and sick and tired of not being able to go into the store without looking over our shoulders. We’re sick and tired of things not changing. We must become the solution.”
“This is not a school system issue, this is not a law enforcement issue, this is not a mental health (issue). This is a collective body. Nobody owns this work. Not one of us,” Baldwin added.
Audience members heard from captains and co-captains of the task force’s subcommittees, and those in attendance were encouraged to join the committee where they felt they could help the most. Subcommittees include the Community Support, Safe Zone, Outreach, Public Relations and Faith-Base.
During the forum, a new subcommittee was also introduced, the Key Players.
“Key players are those who are willing to take the risks, that say ‘I’m not going to let your child fall’,” said Key Players co-captain Ronnie McGirt. “‘I’m willing to know that when your child is not where they are supposed to be, I’ve got a responsibility to say ‘Hey, you need to go back home.’”
McGirt said his generation had this within the community growing up.
“That has been weakening in our system because we feel as though we’re not responsible for nobody else’s kids until we are all hurting at one time and that should not be,” McGirt said.
BJ Gibson said the key players are those who have a “greater influence than the influence we have.”
“When we walked in today, someone asked, ‘When we going to the streets? When we going to roll up our sleeves and go talk to the people,’” Gibson said. “That’s what this group is committed to doing and our superintendent is committed to doing that with us because we understand everybody is not coming into rooms like these but we’re willing to go to the rooms where they are or where they’re comfortable to get the information we need so that we can make a difference with what going on in our community.”
Tracey Williams called on parents to parent their children and for the community to not be afraid to intervene.
“There’s no way that you bypass the parents because that’s where the weapons are. In the parents’ house. My charge is to the parents. Start parenting. Get back to parenting,” Williams said.
Williams said she’s heard so many people in the community say they fear the youth.
“How you scared kids that you taught, that you helped raise. You’re not the target … It’s about gangs,” Williams said.
Many left the forum feeling positive but apprehensive about the work cut out for them.
Sharon Gibson signed up for the Key Players Subcommittee, having grown up in Scotland County.
“I just feel like I can reach some of the kids here,” Gibson said.
Sharon Gibson said “I do but I don’t” feel positive leaving the forum.
“I feel like everybody’s kind of lost. Nobody really knows what it takes, what we need to do to bring our community back,” Gibson said.
Gibson said the ideas she heard are not “built for the fellas we need to reach.”
“I’m not going to be negative … but we’ll see,” Gibson said.
James Matthews III joined the Key Players and Community Outreach.
“The meeting went very well,” he said. “It touched on a lot of key points but we still got a long way to go.”
One thing that most had in common at the meeting was that they cared, Baldwin said.
“If you’re having a tough day and you hear some bad news, stop thinking people don’t care, stop thinking you’re in this by yourself,” Baldwin said. “There’s a lot of people that want to bring about change, and it’s evident from the people in this room.”
The next meeting of subcommittees will be at 5:30 p.m. on April 15.