Many teachers, artists and residents have volunteered this week to make sure students kept their minds on their education and off of the crisis in Ferguson.
The Ferguson-Florissant School District announced Monday that it was cancelling classes for a week because of the escalated “unrest” and protests for Michael Brown, an unarmed teenager shot by a Ferguson police officer on Aug. 9. This was the district’s second delay because of the unrest. School was slated to begin on Aug. 14.
Ferguson teachers got together to organize activities and lunches at the Ferguson Public Library and the First Baptist Church. District mother Cassandra Hill brought her four children to the library from Tuesday to Friday and volunteered during that time as well.
“The kids would have been stuck at home,” Hill said. “My kids keep asking me, ‘Are we starting school today?’ They’ve been upset, so this gives them something that kind of goes with school.”
“They can work on arts and crafts. I’ve seen kids doing math. It keeps them occupied, so they don’t have to think about what’s going on in the city.”
On Monday, Hill took her children down to the protest during the day. However, she said that with the intense police presence, “it wasn’t very friendly out there. I decided not to take them back out.”
Teresa Johnson, associate program director at Springboard St. Louis, helped organize teaching artists to work with the students as well. Springboard is a nonprofit organization that facilitates teaching residencies for artists in the public schools.
“It helps the kids forget what’s going on and have some fun,” she said. “To me, the most important part is seeing the community come together.”
About 40 Springboard artists – from dancers and musicians to storytellers – volunteered their time, she said.
Terone Simmons, a college advisor at McCluer South Berkeley High School, decided to lend a hand on Friday. He said he volunteered for much of the same reason why the students were there, “to escape the reality of what’s going in the community and see that there is still some good that’s going on here.”
He worries, though that the time out of school might have given high school students too much idle time.
Collette Owens, managing director of teacher leadership development for Teach for America St. Louis, was running around on Friday making sure the activities were on schedule. However, with students constantly being dropped off at different times, it made things a bit chaotic.
“They are ready for school to start and be in a place where their friends are,” Owens said. “I’m excited to think of the energy they’re going to show up on Monday with. But I’m also glad that in the meantime, we can fill in that gap.”
Regarding the school district’s decision to close the schools, she said she sees both sides. The district wanted to make sure students were safe and had adequate transportation – as well as give teachers essential crisis training. But as a parent, she naturally feels children should be in school.
Hill said she didn’t agree with the district’s decision. She especially didn’t understand why it was necessary to take an entire week off, she said.
“I don’t feel like you should shut down the whole district for a few schools in the danger zone – and the danger hasn’t been in the daytime,” she said. “I’ve been to the rally in the daytime, and it’s a very peaceful protest. In fact, this is the closest I’ve ever seen my city. The unity is awesome.”
Though she wants her children in school, she said she doesn’t believe the week off will have damaging effects on their education.
“Do I think that this is making them nosedive? Absolutely not,” she said. “It’s almost like a bad snow week. We need to get them in school, but we can catch up.”
