NOLA-PS students share crime concerns with City Council: 'Children of New Orleans are hurt'

New Orleans’ crime surge has been felt by most residents, including the city’s high school students, who told the City Council earlier this week they feel the government has failed them.

The meeting was called by board member Freddie King and included students from Edna Karr and Rosenwald high schools, along with leaders from several groups focused on youth intervention.

“The children of New Orleans are hurt. They are in pain,” said Karr senior Mya Butler from her screen on Zoom. “I have friends that have been to funerals back-to-back-to-back. It’s getting to a point where it’s like, ‘Someone passed, it’s nothing new.’ No child should feel like that.”

Two weeks ago, Butler helped organize a unity rally for her high school against youth crime and violence. The next day, her classmate, Keyron Ross, was shot and killed by another student.

While many children in New Orleans have been exposed to gun violence their entire lives, a surge in shootings and carjackings has pushed crime prevention to the forefront of City Council conversations recently.

The rate of violent crime has risen significantly since this time last year, according to the Council’s crime dashboard. Carjackings were up 77%, and homicides involving firearms were up almost 32% as of Friday.

Officials have been divided on possible solutions, at times pointing fingers at one another over who is responsible. Mayor LaToya Cantrell has called for increased collaboration between law enforcement agencies and announced a series of proposed solutions aimed at recruiting and retaining public safety officers.

This week, Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams promised to improve sentencing procedures after several media outlets reported his office had missed legal deadlines in dozens of violent crime cases.

Over the course of the nearly four-hour-long meeting, other students and adults echoed Butler’s concerns and offered possible solutions.

“Being Black, you only get broadcast for the negative things,” Jazzmene, a student at Rosenwald said. “I think we need more media coverage of us doing positive things that will help us actually make it out.”

Another Rosenwald student, Gerald, agreed.

“Every time you see a Black boy on the news, he either be killing somebody or be killed,” he said. “I think we need to touch more on the positivity and what we can do to help boys like me.”

Two other Rosenwald students, Jamie and Jovante raised the need for increased mental health services and urged the Council to dedicate funding to school-based counseling.

“I feel like mental health really does have to do with crime,” Jovante said. “I don’t think that someone is going to go out there and just do something [unless] they really aren’t right in the head.”

Jovante said students can have a hard time accessing mental health support, especially if their parents don’t take their concerns seriously.

And while there are a number of intervention programs in the city for boys meant to keep them on the right track, Jovante said girls are often forgotten.

“No one is worried about the girls, and I’m sick and tired of that,” she said.

One student suggested extending after-school programs and providing more support for parents. Another said the city should do more to stop pollution and respond to climate change so young people can feel more confident that the city will be here in 50 years.

City Council members responded to student concerns by encouraging them to work with their schools and community groups to advance their goals and promised to reassess the city’s funding priorities.

“We’ve never not had enough money to punish you,” said Council member Oliver Thomas. “Rarely have we put together our heads and our hearts to resource you.”

Council members also heard from the leaders of several youth intervention programs, including the Silverback Society, the Youth Empowerment Project (YEP) and Heroes of New Orleans.

Lloyd Dennis with the Silverback Society said he believes more young people are being driven to commit violent crimes because they don’t know how to make money any other way.

He took aim at New Orleans’ public schools and criticized the “college or bust” message advanced by many of the city’s charters.

“Not every kid is going to be an academic or a scholar,” he said. “Kids are condemned to not doing anything worthwhile if they don’t go to college.”

Dennis called on Jamar McKneely, the CEO of one of NOLA-PS’s charter operators InspireNOLA Charter Schools, who was on Wednesday’s call, to open a vocational school.

“McKneely, give us a trade school,” he said. “ It will be packed. You’ll have a waiting list.”

The nonprofits invited to Wednesday’s meeting receive relatively little money from the city and rely on grant and crowd funding instead.

Gregory Ravy, with Heroes for New Orleans, said his center in Algiers is one of few safe spaces where children and teenagers can hang out and also access a variety of services, including mentorship, counseling, tutoring and meals.

Ravy said he’d like to expand his facility, which has a proven track record in the community, and offer more resources, including a computer lab, but his organization’s finances are tenuous.

By the end of the call, Council member JP Morrell said it was clear the city would need to assess how money meant to serve the city’s young people is being spent.

According to Morrell, the city has two separate departments focused on helping children and young adults.

“There’s $4 million between the two of them,” Morrell said. “The programs that we are providing aren’t being catered to what [young people] want and need.”

The only city program a student brought up by name during Wednesday’s meeting was an intervention program called Cure Violence.

Gerald, the student at Rosenwald, said participating in Cure when he was younger had helped set him up for success. Morrell said the program is no longer active in New Orleans.

“They got rid of CURE, and they have not really replaced it with something that works,” Morrell said, referring to the Cantrell administration. “The city of New Orleans is not doing a good job.”

He pointed to the recent arrest of 18-year-old Tyrese Harris, the accused Costco carjacker who was also booked on a second-degree murder charge in a separate case, as evidence that the city’s current programs are ineffective.

“That young man touched the system 19 times,” Morrell said. “Programs were given to him and nothing changed him.”

Though the Council didn't announce any concrete plans, members said the crime surge was their top priority and invited young people to keep working with them.

Morrell said the Council will hold a youth forum at Edna Karr High School on March 7 to discuss how crime is impacting young New Orleanians and connect them with employment opportunities.