The creators of a mentoring program that has reduced school violence and truancy in Milwaukee and several other cities have grown frustrated trying to pitch the plan to school officials in the District, where it was developed.
D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty last year resurrected the Violence Free Zones program, created in the late 1990s after a high-profile gang truce, but organizers said they cannot fathom why D.C. school officials have largely ignored the successful program.
“I have no idea why it hasn’t been embraced in the city of its origin,” said Bob Woodson, founder of the District-based Center for Neighborhood Enterprise (CNE), which created the initiative. “I haven’t met with a superintendent yet in D.C.”
Mr. Fenty, a Democrat, reinstituted the program in February 2007 at Anacostia Senior High School and Johnson Junior High School, both in Southeast. But Public Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee has been unresponsive to requests to continue and expand the program, Mr. Woodson said.
He understands that Mrs. Rhee “has her hands full” with the school system, but still feels disheartened by years of being ignored, Mr. Woodson said.
The nonprofit LifeStarts group, which runs the program at Johnson Junior High, is being vetted to expand and likely will return next year, D.C. schools spokeswoman Jennifer Calloway said. The District-based Peaceoholics group, which operates the program at Anacostia Senior High, also will return, she said.
Miss Calloway did not say whether there were plans to expand the program to any of the nearly 100 other schools in the District.
The Washington Times reported Sunday that Milwaukee school officials have praised the program, which mentors 900 students in seven schools across the 87,000-student system.
Milwaukee police responded to more than 11,000 calls to public schools in the 2005-06 school year.
The public schools created their own Gang Intelligence Unit and began the Violence Free Zone program in 2006. Violent incidents since then have decreased by 23 percent and school suspensions have fallen 9 percent, school and CNE officials said.
Schools in Atlanta, Baltimore, Dallas and Prince George’s County have shown similar results, Mr. Woodson said.
Data from D.C. police do not show such progress at Anacostia or Johnson. However, many incidents are handled and recorded by school contractor Hawk One Security, police spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump said.
Curtis Watkins, founder and director of District-based LifeStarts, said limited data show measurable gains.
From January to the end of the last school year, the attendance of 42 of the most chronically truant students increased from 31 percent to 60 percent, he said.
The number of fights was cut in half and the number of serious disruptions such as carrying a concealed weapon or arson decreased 57 percent since last March, he said.
The number of mediations carried out by Peaceoholics fell to 20 per week from 40, according to D.C. schools.
Under the Violence Free Zone program, youth advisers from community groups counsel students and assist school staff with monitoring halls and cafeterias and diffusing conflicts.
CNE acts as intermediary between the community groups and the schools and provides training and other support services.
The advisers are typically young ex-convicts or former gang members or drug dealers whose struggles will be familiar to those the students face.
The initiative emerged after a January 1997 abduction and slaying of 12-year-old Darryl Dayan Hall carried out three teenage members of the Simple City Crew from the Benning Heights neighborhood in Southeast, CNE spokeswoman Heather Humphries said.
Gang members and Darryl’s parents said the boy was caught in an internal conflict in a crew but was not a member of a gang.
Mr. Woodson and the Alliance of Concerned Men, a youth advocacy group, intervened. After two weeks of talks over a series of free dinners - a simple gesture to set the tone for peace negotiations - a truce was announced.
“They would fight if they were drinking together,” Mrs. Humphries said. “But they wouldn’t fight if they were eating.”
Anacostia interim Principal Lynne Holcomb-Gober said she welcomed Peaceoholics last spring.
“My staff pulled together to make it happen and Peaceoholics was a part of that,” she said. “Conflict resolution has been the main thing.”
Mrs. Humphries said students relate to the youth advisers and feel comfortable talking with them about conflicts or other problems.
“They don’t regard it as snitching,” she said. “They see it more as a big brother or big sister.”
Pressure for safeguards against school violence has grown with Mrs. Rhee’s plans to close 23 schools this summer - a move parents and community leaders think will stir conflicts as students from rival neighborhoods are put together.
The D.C. Council is considering legislation that will require the Metropolitan Police Department to develop plans to ensure school administrators are prepared for such conflicts.
Mr. Watkins said LifeStarts is prepared to help smooth out the school restructuring plans, even if the Violence Free Zones are discontinued.
“I think with all the issues the school system has right now, focusing on one issue is kind of hard right now,” he said. “I see there is an opportunity for something different. I think DCPS is open for something new.”
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