Well, it’s the end of another undistinguished school year for East St. Louis public schools. One would think that students would be making an immediate beeline for the nearest shopping mall, swimming pool or (if they’re ambitious) trying to line up a summer job, typical stuff for a high school kid.
But why waste time on all of that positive stuff when there are grudges to settle, people to fight and folks to shoot?
Sounds comically sarcastic but, unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened during final exam week at East St. Louis Senior High. Just one day after East Side’s high school graduation ceremony, police were called to the school to break up a number of spontaneous brawls.
Such last-week-of-school beat-downs are commonplace, even when I was a student at East Side. Typically, some student harbors a grudge toward another student all year and waits until the last week of school to settle the score. The logic behind this madness is that since school is “officially” out there will be no consequences.
I’m sure that was the thinking. The reality is that the “po-po” are never off for summer break. That was the flaw in their logic, especially on the part of the pitiful young men who, allegedly, flashed gang signs before shooting another 19-year-old man in the face and eye during the series of melees, creating a virtual riot outside of the high school.
At press time, one man was in custody in connection with the shooting, as ESL police continue their investigation into the incident.
However, one thing that requires no investigation (or analysis) is the fact that this was a senseless and ridiculous event, last week of school or any other time.
In my last article, I reported on the $100,000-per-year administrator Stan Mims, whose job (in part) was to mentor young high school men in ESL and elevate their reading scores. The young men’s scores, in spite of this overpaid “principal coach,” actually decreased.
So, it should come as no surprise when young, frustrated men resort to violence as means of settling their problems. If they can’t read, count, don’t test well and otherwise lack the capacity to compete in an increasingly competitive world, then that’s what hopelessness produces.
That’s why I submit that it’s up to parents (who have been apathetic in the face of an inept school district), a school district (which has proven itself to be more interested in hook-ups than education) and absentee fathers, who must reenter their son’s lives and provide the positive example that has been sorely missing for so long in the African-American community.
In short WE, as a community, have abdicated our responsibility to our young men and caused them to literally function on a savage-like level.
Of course, there are always some exceptional young men, but not enough. And one young man being needlessly shot is one young man too many.
And, as culpable as ESL Schools and ESL parents are in this instance, this is a national problem. North St. Louis, Harlem, South Central L.A., Roxbury, MA, Washington, D.C., Detroit and other similar communities are all equally remiss.
But since this is my community (and not one which I simply write about), I am concerned that if the politics and the lack of accountability are not addressed, we may soon lose complete control of our young men in East Boogie.
I realize that upon the election of President Obama many within the African-American community hoped that the majesty of a black president would provide the perfect self-imagery fix that our young brothers sorely needed.
Well, it didn’t work. It should be abundantly clear in ESL (and elsewhere) that unless we address the problem, we will continue to bury our young men while other young men are matriculating to college and ruling the world.
Email: jtingram_1960@yahoo.com.