Teen violence a ‘real’ problem in Columbus

By Donna Marbury
Contributing Writer
Columbus Post
Carlita Mitchell raises her three children on the Southeast side of Columbus. As a single mother, she juggles two jobs along with the responsibility of rearing her kids. Sometimes she blames her absence, and the absence of the children’s father on the fact that her two teenage sons are gang members.
“Back when I was growing up, kids knew better than to hang out with the wrong people, even when their parents weren’t around,” said Mitchell, whose 17-year-old son has influenced her 15-year-old to start gangbanging. “I knew when they became teenagers that I needed some positive male role models in their life. But I just didn’t know what to do.”
Mitchell said her sons are in and out of juvenile jails, courts and programs, especially in the summertime. She attended last week’s Power 107.5 Town Hall Meeting on Youth Violence at the Lincoln Theatre to get advice and answers from city leaders. “My boys aren’t bad kids. But the reality is they are being a terror in our neighborhood. I am hoping that I can learn what to do,” she said.
Columbus’ top urban radio stations; Power 107.5FM, Joy 106.3 and Magic 98.9 simultaneously broadcasted the town hall meeting, while the Lincoln Theatre was filled with parents, children and members of the community looking for real answers to Columbus’ youth violence issue. Paul Strong, program director and host of Power 107.5’s Power Morning Crew, said that the community uses his radio show to voice their frustrations. “When there is a bad weekend in Columbus, every morning at 6 a.m. my phone is ringing with people telling us we have to get with the schools, the police, the pastors and preachers together to figure this out,” Strong said, who estimated that thousands of listeners were tuning in. “We have to stop leaving teddy bears, balloons and cards in our neighborhoods where one of our children lost their life.”
Joining Strong and his Morning Crew co-host Misty Jordan were panelists Mayor Michael Coleman, Dr. Gene Harris, superintendent of Columbus City Schools, Jeff Blackwell, deputy chief of the Columbus Police Department, former state representative Larry Price and Ohio State University Professor Dr. Deanna Wilkenson.
Coleman voiced that teen violence stems from many different sources and that solutions are multi-faceted. “Teen violence is a problem that everyone has a solution to. We have to look at ourselves in the mirror as a city and a community. It doesn’t take a government program, though it’s helpful,” Coleman said. “It’s not just about what is said tonight, but what’s done tomorrow.”
Harris was one of the first to suggest that mentors can help teens use dialogue that will help them with conflict resolution. She said that community leaders like Walter Smith, host of 107.5’s Street Soldiers and a consultant for Columbus City Schools, help bridge the gap between the streets and the right path for teens. “We have to find men and women that we trust that can reach kids in a way that many of us don’t,” Harris said, who stressed that when young men and women lack a positive male role model, it can lead to unresolved anger issues. “We need more men to step up and help raise other people’s children at this point.”
One of the biggest areas of concern for Blackwell is the rise in gang activity in central Ohio. He said that the Columbus Police Department estimates that there are 1,300 documented gang members in the city and equal as many non-documented members. “Our youngest documented gang member is nine-years-old. Gangs are all in our schools, recreation centers and all of our neighborhoods,” he explained. “A lot of kids are pulled in not because they are bad, but because they want protection. It’s like a mob mentality.”
After initial discussions, many parents and community members stood in line to question city leaders about solutions to the violence epidemic. “I just don’t want to see another summer like we had last year,” said Yolanda Davis, who lives off of Main Street and says she sees prostitution everyday. “A lot of the girls I see busted up and bruised look the same age as my daughter.”
Strong said the town hall meeting is the first of many initiatives that the radio stations are planning to help curb teen violence in Columbus. For example, Terrence “City” Sigers, 107.5 radio personality who hosts The City School Tour, visits high schools and regularly talks to gang members and drug dealers about their motives. “I talk to young ladies and men and they tell me there’s no hope for them. There are no options. What they want, they want it now,” he said. “They don’t want to wait. Sure, there may be one job for one kid. But there are a hundred more on their block that need that same attention.”


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