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Local students create plan to make school a safer place

PITTSBURGH — What was your summer job? Five Perry High School students spent 10 weeks putting together a plan to make their school safer. They got paid for it, but this investment goes far beyond the money.

“We want to make school a better place,” said 15-year-old Alishiah Campbell.

Campbell, Antwan Cotes and Geoni Lee are 15 years old. Besides starting 10th grade next week, they are determined to change the environment as student safety ambassadors.

“We didn’t know we were going to be doing all this,” said Campbell.

“We just watched students go through a 10-week program learning about trauma,” said The Hear Foundation co-founder Leon Ford. “Learning about policing, learning about how to create a stronger sense of community. They developed and designed a plan to go back into their school and transform the culture of their school, and I think it’s very powerful. I think the more we invest in our youth, the more people will step into leadership roles; and that’s another way we can transform our city.”

Over the summer, the students worked two days a week at $15 an hour to create a safety plan focused on violence prevention that will be implemented at the high school. It’s being funded by a grant through The Hear Foundation, which was recently created by former Police Chief Scott Schubert and Leon Ford. In 2012, a Pittsburgh police officer shot Ford five times during a traffic stop, paralyzing him.  Ford says these students inspire him.

“We have seen the spike in gun violence in our city,” said Ford. “A lot of youth violence. However, a lot of times we have adults saying, ‘Well this is what needs to happen.’ This is what the youth needs, but who’s listening to the youth? And they are telling us what their needs are.”

One need the students pointed out was a place where they could calm down during the school day.

“If you’re arguing with someone, and you want to fight someone,” said Campbell.  “That’s a room you could go to talk, and calm down and think about your actions.”

The plan also includes creating a safe passage plan to ensure students stay safe when they leave the school building.  Principals, safety coordinators, community activists and police officers spent an hour listening to the students.

“We’re all in this together,” said Pittsburgh Police Commander Shawn Malloy. “The community and us are all one, and they understand that now. They’re not fearful of the police, at least the ones we had the opportunity to talk to. So our goal is to change that perception of all the students throughout the city of Pittsburgh.”

One person said this is going to transform Pittsburgh Public Schools, and Perry High School is just the beginning.

“We did the pilot at Perry High School,” said Ford. “They’re going to now go into their school year leading, taking these ideas from their public safety plan to help the school become safer, to build a stronger sense of community in their school. And then from there, we hope we can support other young people at different schools all over the district.”

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