KSC Hosts Panel on Gun Violence Featuring Teens from the Youth Leadership Council
The panel was moderated by Executive Program Director Barbyose Noisette. Panelists include: Kai DiMarco, Jocelyn Washington, and Anthony Acevedo.
“A common thing I am hearing is the importance of strong mentoring; having adults to support them”.
Ultimately a lot of the responses focused on the importance of improving access to quality education, and mental health services.
“Sometimes the best form of therapy is being around peoople you enjoy around. You need a place to escape - a place that isn’t school to escape. That is the benefit of organizations. There are communities out there for all kinds of people. It is important to just talk about the problems — just talk.” - Kai
“We expect hypermasculinity from men in our society. We expect them to get through things. To not cry to not vent, and it is just important”
What are the misconceptions that you would like to dispel?
“I could go on and on about the stereotypes about chidlren in this neighborhood. If you were to go to a good neighborhood, they would say that we are bad; we hurt people; but that’s not us. Especially those that want to go to school to learn. When people put that stereotype on people - especially me - it’s rude…. when people see you they think you are Black child I don’t want my child around them.” Jocelyn
Kai: When we walk on that field, some of us don’t know we are the smartest people, the kindest people… because what they see is a bunch of hoodrats from Kensington. They see what they see and nothing - no one is going to change their mind.
When they associate that with us when they hear school shootings - you know it’s not just us. It’s not really always us. It’s in Texas, it’s in a suburb in Connecticut. It’s not always us; it’s not frequently us on major scales like that.”
I just want to remove the stereotypes - it’s not always a low-income kid that comes from a bad kid. It could be a kid from the suburbs who had one long. day.
How can we encourage responsible gun regulation on teenage, or should there be an alternative?
I think teens shouldn’t have access to firearms whatsoever. And I think some adults should not have them.
We need to put stricter laws in effect than, ‘ you need a license for that.” Some people have a gun just to have a gun, and you shouldn’t receive it just because of that.
“it is going to be very hard to get people to stop using their guns”
What Kensington Soccer Club is doing:
They are doing well with gun violence prevention.
If we could improve YLC and workready. Workready keeps kids off the street so they don’t do anything stupid..they’re working.
I like every program that helps out the community. You don’t end up with people that are saving to move to North Carlonia, you keep people that want to stay and help the community.
Every nonprofit organization is great to keep kids off the streets. Having an initiative to teach about the danger, to come and just do activities and create a space where people can have fun, like in KSC.
Following the panel discussions, they were split up into their working groups in order to brainstorm solutions to gun violence. Collectively, the students came up with over 20 solutions, categorized into prevention, “out of the box ideas” and interventions. Some ideas were as large as a big community day or as specific as providing safe programming. Ultimately a variety of suggestions as .
Barbyose said, “I appreciate your vulnerability and transparency about the experiences you had. I know it’s not easy, but I think it was great”.
The discussion they are having right now is on solutions. What can adults do? What can the community do? ETC.