Since her role began in 2018, Columbus Municipal School District Superintendent Cherie Labat has attended six funerals of students from the district. Four of those were victims of gun violence.
“I always look at the mother,” Labat said. “I always focus on the mother because I’m a mother, and I can’t imagine losing my child. I think that’s the hardest part is looking at the mothers of the children because generally they’re just unresponsive; they are in shock. You can see how their souls have just escaped them.”
Labat recently attended the funeral of 15-year-old Harvey Montrelle Johnson Jr., who was shot and killed on April 25.
Though she has attended far too many funerals for children, she is also thinking about the students who are victims of gun violence and survive.
“We’ve had nine kids shot this year,” Labat said. “A lot of the kids that are shot (and survive) end up having permanent disabilities. Some are paralyzed, and their lives will never be the same. … The kids who live generally have a lot of health issues, a lot of mental health issues and a lot of trauma.”
In December, community leaders gathered at Brandon Central Services to talk about solutions for gun violence that is affecting children, and a second meeting was held Monday. The goal for the meetings is to gather each quarter and discuss progress and more ways to help the community.
So far, Labat considers the meetings a success. CMSD started the Adopt-a-Block initiative, brought in a life coach for students and is involved with various summer programs to help students stay occupied. At the most recent meeting, leaders from the Boys and Girls Club and the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library, as well as Mayor Keith Gaskin, came together to speak about different programs in the summer for school-aged children.
“We have some great things happening in the community, and I think it’s only going to get better and stronger,” Labat said. “I feel like our initial meeting went well and I think things are getting better. There’s a lot more that we can do, but I think all of us meeting to collaborate about what we’re doing and how we’re working toward reducing gun violence in the community is worth every minute. I feel like Monday’s meeting was phenomenal, and I walked away inspired by the work that’s being done in the community.”
A grieving mother’s plea
Harvey Johnson Jr.’s mother, Cierra Jones, was present at the beginning of the Monday meeting, but she could not stay the entire time as she was on her work lunch break, Jones told The Dispatch.
Jones lost her son to gun violence only a month ago, and she is already advocating for more parents and community members to pay more attention to the youth.
“I just want to say keep a closer eye on your kids,” Jones implored. “… (The meetings) are very effective, but we should have them more often, not just because gun violence starts. We should’ve started way before all the gun violence and stuff going on.”
Jones thinks more patrolling by law enforcement could help curb some of the gun violence, and she believes more needs to be done to check on those left behind by the children who have been killed.
“I wish the district would pay more attention and show that they actually care about the parents left behind,” Jones said.
“I’m hurt. I’m torn apart. No one has talked to me; they haven’t come to me about anything. I’m really hurt because the night that it happened they called me to come identify my baby, and when I got there, the only thing they did was ask me questions. So, I didn’t have a chance to identify my baby until he came back from Jackson from his autopsy just four days before his wake.”
‘Constantly meetings’ with no action
Some community leaders feel as though gun violence prevention efforts have fallen on deaf ears.
Leroy Brooks, District 5 Lowndes County supervisor and founder of the crime prevention task force, is frustrated that work was done to complete a report for the city and there has been no action taken from it. The report details plans for law enforcement retention and recruiting, forming volunteer police service and neighborhood watch programs, and improving the conditions of the city’s parks.
“(The crime prevention task force) presented a plan to the city council in October of last year,” Brooks said. “… I was only asked to be a part of the task force by the former mayor. Of course he’s gone. Once the plan was voted on by the crime prevention task force, we submitted it to the mayor and council. We were expecting them to at least engage with us to identify some priorities that we could work on, but that has not happened. I’m not in a position to supersede the authority of the mayor and council.”
One of Brooks’ growing frustrations is there are different groups across the city gathering separately, and they aren’t working together.
“My concern is there are constantly meetings, meetings at the church, meetings here, everybody wants to have their own separate meeting about crime and gun violence,” Brooks said. “… Even if they don’t like the proposal (of the crime prevention task force), start all over and give us a new plan to follow. Give the community a plan to follow, not everybody coming up with a plan and splitting human resources. If you’ve got 10 plans, that means you don’t have a plan. You have 10 different ideas.”
Gaskin agrees the report from the crime prevention task force has fallen by the wayside, but he thinks about it nearly every day. He said he carries the copy given to him everywhere he goes.
“I have referenced it quite a bit in the work that we’re doing from the education side and things that we can do to improve the quality of education in the city to help avoid some of these issues that we’re seeing with crime,” Gaskin said. “… I totally agree with (Brooks) that we probably haven’t made it as big of a priority as he would like and I think others. I am actively reaching out to other people to become involved with him on the task force committee that have the same passion for it that he does. I’m very appreciative of the time and work they put into (the report).”
One of the solutions Labat offers is for the community to call on leaders at local, state and national levels to put legislation in place that could help curb gun violence.
“I think that silence only perpetuates the violence in our community and that we have to be more vocal and have more expectations of our leadership from the local level to the state to the national level,” Labat said. “We are not the only community dealing with these very complex issues. We see what happened in Texas, what happened in Buffalo, and we have got to be more conscious and more proactive in getting the people that make the decisions to do what they are obligated to do to protect the most vulnerable. Until the most vulnerable people in our community are protected, we will never be who we should be as humans. We cannot continue like this. … Reasonable gun legislation is a human right.”
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You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 46 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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