(courtesy of Kia Gregory and Philadelphia Weekly)

All they ask is that you listen.

That’s the title and plea of the documentary the Young Legends debuted last Thursday at West Oak Lane’s Ogontz Grill to explore the whys of school violence.

The Young Legends is a group of about 30 students, a peer-mentoring program that connects Roosevelt and Fulton sixth- and seventh-graders—the at-risk mentees—with Germantown High 10th-graders—the mentors.

Their conversation, told in their 30-minute film, stemmed from the Feb. 23 beating of beloved longtime Germantown High School teacher Frank Burd. The math teacher confiscated an iPod from one of his 11th-grade students who’d ignored repeated requests to turn it down. After class the student demanded it back, a ninth-grader joined his case, and Burd ended up on the hallway floor with a broken neck that left him in critical condition.

The two students were suspended immediately, and later expelled. They were also charged with aggravated assault, simple assault and reckless endangerment.

After the incident we heard from Burd. We heard from the School District. We heard from the police. The only group we didn’t hear from—the one voice the Young Legends students say has been missing from the discussion—is theirs.

The students’ documentary All We Ask Is That U Listen is part debut and part celebration as the program, which runs from October to June, draws to a close.
About 40 parents and students fill the main dining room, sitting at round tables as servers bring out salads, sodas and water.

The students wear Young Legends T-shirts they designed. Through the program, held at the Education Works Germantown Beacon Center, and funded by United Way and the Greenfield Family Foundation, the older students guide the younger ones in exercises on mediation, conflict resolution and leadership. They meet three days a week for about three hours a day to talk about how to avoid being victims and perpetrators of violence.

With the documentary, they hope other students will join their collective stand against violence.

“This program has done a lot for me,” mentor Danielle Smith tells those gathered. “I was on the road to destroying myself, and I got myself together.”

The program offers the basics of homework help and class trips. It also provides students a safe haven for talking about their problems, and for learning that violence is never the solution.

While waiting for the film to start, Carolyn describes her son Tony as stuck between being a baby boy and a high schooler. He’s handsome and tall, with green eyes. His good looks, she says, are part of the problem. And he’s constantly looking for respect—which before the program led to constant fights.

“He was trying to impress, trying to be cool,” says his mother. She remembers how he’d boast to her that 50 Cent got shot nine times. She’d respond that the shooter obviously had bad aim. But through the Young Legends Tony’s been exposed to other heroes, like Malcolm X, and at one point walked around with Huey Newton’s tattered biography under his arm.

“He’s not allowed to ride his bike in the neighborhood or go to his friends’ houses,” says his mother. “This program allows him to hang out with his peers in a safe environment.”

Another mother at another table echoes the sentiment.

“It’s hard and nerve-wracking to keep your boys off the street,” says Penny, mother of 17-year-old James. “This program is a Godsend.”

If anything, the Young Legends are hope personified. They’re smart, witty, talented and motivated. They’re also serious about their education, their neighborhood, their lives and the violence that threatens it all—as well as the hope of a solution.
We learn from them that violence starts with a lack of respect, a lack of love, a lack of history.

“We’re the first people and the smartest,” says Germantown student Terrell, speaking of the history of African-Americans. “We don’t know where we come from. We don’t know what we can do.”

Some of the students also blame a broken school system that provides them with old books or none at all; bad teachers; and dirty, crumbling buildings—problems that have festered for years. One student laments he’s never seen his principal.
Read the rest of the article here:
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/view.php?id=14659

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