'We are in crisis': CMSD's Civics 2.0 program works to address impact of gun violence on Cleveland students
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According to the district, eight Cleveland students have been killed since the summer due to gun violence.

CLEVELAND — The impact of gun violence continues to plague students and staff within the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. Eight CMSD students have been killed since this past summer due to gun violence.

“I’ve taught in Cleveland for a long time, and throughout my years in teaching middle school and high school in Cleveland, I’ve lost my fair amount of students,” Gayle Gadison says.

Gadison is the social studies manager for CMSD and runs the Civics 2.0 program, an after-school group encouraging students to be civically engaged and teaching them how to become proactive citizens. On Monday, the program brought together 200 students from 18 city schools for a “Democracy in Action” student summit, which addressed how students can increase voter registration and voting and what they can do as young people to fight against gun violence. There was also a moment of silence for the CMSD students recently killed by shootings.

“Every time they hear of something like this, I want them to be outraged,” Gadison told us of her students being exposed to the deaths of their peers. “I want them to be so outraged until they say that, ‘You know what? We’re going to do something about this.'”

Students are working with M-PAC Cleveland on ways to raise money for a new initiative to provide “We Care and Kindness Bags” to families of CMSD victims of gun violence. The bags are filled with multiple items like books and gift cards, and will be sent to the families within 48 hours of the tragedy.

“Just to know that we have to put these together means that we are in crisis,” Gadison explained. “Our community is in crisis and our young people are in crisis.”

At the summit, students were able to hear from both perpetrators and victims of gun violence about the impact of the trauma experienced.

“At 17, I was tried, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison for the crime of murder,” Vince Evans of Cleveland Peacemakers Alliance shared with the audience. “I spent 27 years, four months, three weeks, and two days in prison. … At 17, I wasn’t a gangster, I wasn’t a killer. I was a scared little kid with a gun.”

Damian Calvert also spoke to the group about his journey of transitioning from a young person jailed for murder to a repentant man who has committed himself to working to prevent violence.

“I’m in the business of life, and so having these touch points with the youth, that’s really important,” Calvert explained. “I had a code switch when I was incarcerated. Somewhere along the way, I woke up and I realized that we’re either busy living or we’re busy dying. You’re either in the business of life or you’re in the business of death.”

And sitting in between Evans and Calvert was Natasha Lovelace, the mother of Makayla Barlow, a 2022 CMSD graduate who survived being shot in the head after unsuspectingly driving though gunfire.

“As a victim, you don’t get to talk to somebody who created that type of trauma for you and you don’t normally get to hear their side of the story and have that conversation,” Lovelace said. “I honestly feel honored to be able to sit between two people that are vulnerable enough to admit that what they did was a mistake and to sit in front of a group of children, who are facing violence every day, and share their stories so we can be more empathetic about trauma from both sides.”

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