Thinking about the Children

Despite seeing his shadow, the day is exceptionally bright, sunny and warm. There were no signs of winter so I decided to take a walk around my neighborhood.

The first thing to grab my attention was the flag at half-mast at the Fred Koramatsu 9th grade campus.  I was stilled at the reminder and memorial to , the child killed by her boyfriend last week.

The flag triggered  recollections of the other violence that has impacted the children of this community. In my past  14 years,  more or less, of public involvement in San Leandro – initially an elected official and now more of a civic-minded observer–  there have been too many travesties and tragedies.  

As I walked past the half-draped flag towards Palma Plaza, I thought, just as there are no more remnants of the old Palma Plaza except the fading sign, there are no more remnants of the shooting death of a young teen male San Leandro High student by a former Palma Plaza business operator.

Due to unfortunate circumstances and misread cues, that child was shot pretty much where the shiny Walgreen’s is now. His sidewalk memorial was less than 50 feet from where the flag hangs in memorial to Myrna. The sidewalk tree that shadowed his candle memorial is gone now.

And then I glanced over two blocks east, and I remembered the tragic shooting murder of high school sophmore Nayanci Gonzalez in 2005. Like Mryna, she was a victim of relationship violence; her story, like Myrna's, ended with a murder-suicide.

Two of these children died within blocks of their schools.

And then I thought about the violent attack on Evelyna LeBlanc  just blocks away.  One winter night in 1994, then age 15, she was raped and shot in the head, resulting in her death. Evelyna was last seen being dropped off by a bus at East 14th Street and 136th Avenue.

If this recount is a downer, it should be. Sadly, these are the ones  I know of publicly. How many families have suffered similar loss privately? As my late great uncle Sonny would have said, “that is sadder than Martin Luther King’s funeral.”

These four children (teens, but yet children) have been murdered within recent memory, and while years space them out, three out of four where in the same neighborhood.

It is even sadder that three of these crime happened in what should be a child safety zone and the other happened at home.

I don’t know how we do it but I think parents, politicians, educators, public safety officials and everyone who values community have a responsibility for making sure that areas where our children congregate – schools, parks and the blocks around them -- are safe.

So what is going to help in San Leandro? How do we build self-esteem so young girls can safely get out of a relationships? How do we erase the perceived threat of some observers to the mere presence of a young person? How do we ensure safe passages and reduce the harm to our children when they walk from point A to point B?

Unfortunately, I have no definitive answers despite my experience in lobbying Congress, working with Sacramento legislators, sitting on the San Leandro City Council and facilitating “visioning” meetings in some of the Bay Areas most challenged communities, .

Yet we need answers. This cannot become an ongoing narrative.

A web search for “child safe zones” identify programs that improve education and long-term success, sites that serve as a “watch” for child molesters, locations children’s shelters,  or even a provide a “safe” place to register information about your child and family.

The Harlem Children’s Zone is heralded by those in community building, education and social service work as a wonderful model. There are attempts to replicate it in cities all around. See the Harlem Children’s Zone website. 

All good.  And if they can do it all for thousands of kids in Harlem, then we should be able to do something for the hundreds of children in our community.  We are a town where losing one child to violence is one too many and any more than that is a travesty. Their lives (or lack of one) is our future.

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