When Tyrone Haslett was growing up in Chicago, he loved to go to the zoo.

He and a particular group of friends all grew up in single-parent homes without much chance to get out of town or stay out of trouble, he said. Going to the zoo was their “way out.”

“That was a big part of my childhood,” he said. “We took public transportation, and … it opened up the idea of traveling once I got older.”

Now a school resource officer at Armstrong Junior High School in Starkville, Haslett wants to give some of the students he works with every day the same experience.

He and Sammy Shumaker, chief SRO for Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District, came up with a plan to take 40 AJHS boys to the Memphis Zoo in June — to give the students an opportunity to get out of their hometown for a day and to help encourage them to stay out of trouble, they said.

The plan came about as school and city officials are tackling an increasing number of violent crimes, including the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old on Easter Sunday. Many of the crimes have involved teenage boys.

Haslett and Shumaker said they thought if they could arrange a trip for some of the eighth and ninth grade boys who don’t have as much opportunity for travel or other activities outside Starkville this summer, they could dampen some of the gun violence that’s plagued the community in recent weeks.

Haslett said he hopes the zoo will be educational and an opportunity for the boys to form relationships with some of the chaperones on the trip.

“We just want to show them their lives are worth more,” he said. “Believe me, if I could have reached the one that was murdered … or the ones who took his life, get them out of the neighborhood, maybe they’d still be here today. That’s what I’m trying to do. That’s what we’re trying to do.

“We want to let them be kids,” he added.

Sponsors and chaperones wanted
“What’s your favorite animal?” Haslett asked Tyler Nichols and Braylon “Stonka” Burnside as the three sat in the AJHS library Wednesday morning.

After some thought, Nichols said tiger. Burnside agreed — or maybe a lion, he said, since they have confidence.

Burnside has never been to a zoo at all, and both boys agreed the field trip would be a nice way to get out of Starkville, since neither of them have anything to do other than the occasional football practice.

“It’s really like a little bit of a break for us,” Burnside said.

Haslett said he took an informal survey of students at the school, both Black and white students — all boys — to determine which students rarely got to travel and which ones didn’t have summer plans.

“(I) walked up to random kids, went, ‘Have you been outside Starkville, Mississippi, out of Mississippi?’ A lot of them said no. ‘What are your plans for the summer?’ ‘I’m sitting at home,’” Haslett said. “It’s the ones who don’t have any help … basically nothing to do over the summer, any outlets. They’re just here.”

Their bus will leave AJHS parking lot at 7 a.m. on June 22, to get to the zoo about an hour after it opens at 9 a.m. Shumaker said one donation from a public official has already paid for the bus deposit.

Since neither he nor Haslett want the boys or their parents to have to pay for anything, Shumaker has put out a request for sponsors and for chaperones — preferably men.

He said he’s already recruited men who work for the school district, Mississippi State University and Oktibbeha County District 2 Supervisor Orlando Trainer. He wants to get men from “all walks of life” who can be role models or mentors for the kids.

Meanwhile, he hopes donations from the community will pay for zoo tickets, lunch and the bus that will take the students to and from Memphis.

All of that will cost about $2,500, about $2,000 of which he still needs. He has gotten “pledges” from churches and organizations throughout the community as word of the planned trip spreads.
He’s hopeful if this trip is successful, they can plan further trips — especially an all-girls trip, with female chaperones.

In addition to giving the kids something positive to do, Haslett said he wants the students — boys and girls, Black and white — to be open to the possibility of travel.

“It’s sad because a lot of these kids have never been outside Starkville, Mississippi,” Haslett said. “I’ve been to Puerto Rico, Mexico, the Bahamas. I go when I can. I show them pictures of that. They’re in awe, like, ‘You went there?’ You’ve got to think outside of your own immediate surroundings.”

Shumaker agreed. Like Haslett, he said he never got to leave the area around Ackerman when he was growing up.

“I can remember going back to school in August and … the teachers would ask, ‘Did anybody go anywhere this summer and do anything?’” he said. “I can remember just hearing the students talk about how they went to the Smokey Mountains, they went to the Rocky Mountains, they went to Orlando, Florida, they went to wherever. And I can just remember thinking in my mind, ‘Wow, I wonder what it would look like there. I wonder how is it there.’”

He said he hopes this trip gives the boys a chance to think outside their immediate surroundings and recognize they have self-worth and opportunities outside a life of crime.

“We just want to encourage them that there is a better way and they don’t have to resort to a life of violence,” Shumaker said. “… They do matter, and they are important, and there is more to them than just a gun in hand.”

Anyone who wants to chaperone or learn more about the trip can contact Shumaker at 662-418-6535 or [email protected]. Donations can be dropped off at the Greensboro Center in Starkville.

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