Milwaukee leaders recently met with students to discuss important safety concerns before summertime arrives. | Skitterphoto/Pixabay
Milwaukee leaders recently met with students to discuss important safety concerns before summertime arrives. | Skitterphoto/Pixabay
Roosevelt Middle School students recently had the full attention of Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson and other community leaders as the two sides exchanged safety concerns about the upcoming summer season.
With Police Chief Jeffrey Norman and Superintendent Keith Posley at his side, Johnson and company fielded questions and shared their thoughts on issues ranging from gun violence to reckless driving.
"As a father myself, with a sixth-grader in Milwaukee Public Schools and, a son who's a sixth-grader there — and twin daughters who this fall will be going to Milwaukee Public Schools as well, I've had concerns about what the impacts of reckless driving and gun violence, how that affects kids,” Johnson said in a Fox6Now.com news report this week. “It affects all of you. It affects the neighborhoods you live in. It affects my own children as well. It's important to me."
Such incidents have spiked recently, and Johnson said he was moved to take action by a batch of letters he received from young people like those he directly spoke with at Roosevelt.
One student at the school talked about how a cousin was recently injured during a shooting in the Deer District, the news report said. Another student shared that one of his sister’s exes was killed in a shootout.
"You have a voice,” Norman told the students. “So, please continue to use that voice. Be part of that change. Be part of that solution. What can you do? Make yourself count by having those discussions with those that want to engage in this dangerous behavior. Whether it's reckless driving, whether it's some of the violence that we've seen across this city. We all know those individuals involved in those particular types of actions. And you have a voice, and be able to redirect those actions.”
Before the day was over, all the sixth-graders were deputized by Norman as City ambassadors, the news report said. As part of the process, he had them raise their right hands and promise to be a part of the reckless driving solution by speaking up.
Students indicated that they would like to engage in more meetings like the one with the City leaders so they could become more involved in the community and be that change.
"I would like people to stop getting guns because we don’t really need them," a student said.
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