Last Tuesday, there was a fight and reports of gunshots in the cafeteria at my partner site, the Academies at Anacostia (also known as Anacostia Senior High). When I was en route to the site, I was definitely worried about the students in the Digital Media Arts Club Brittany and I have been trying to get off the ground. It was quite the hectic scene—kids had spilled out onto the surrounding blocks, police cars were everywhere, and MPD police chief Cathy Lanier was on hand to make a statement to the press. Thankfully, there were no serious injuries reported and no one was shot.

I was able to capture some audio of Lanier giving an interview to ABC-7 and also asked her and Lt. Deborah Manigault some questions about any additional steps MPD and the schools will be taking to address violence in schools.

anaHSAudio101910

The situation saddened me and and frustrated me for a few reasons. First, there is the obvious issue of someone getting a gun into the school and managing to fire it off. Second, one of the students I talked to said this kind of thing happens all of the time, and it saddened me that he seemed…almost nonchalant about it. He had accepted it as a part of life. Third, what frustrates me is that Anacostia only seems to get attention from local media when something horrible like this happens. Working at Anacostia these past few months has shown me that the school has gained a reputation that it doesn’t necessarily deserve. True, there are troublemakers in the school, but that doesn’t apply to all of the kids there. A lot of them are in band and ROTC and a ton of other clubs. They’re smart, brash, funny and energetic. They just need that energy to be harnessed for good. And there also needs to be more investment of time, energy and resources into these students and their lives; not just talk.

And both local and public media needs to do more to address those issues, rather than only show up when violence erupts.