Students Take The Lead In An Effort To End Youth Violence In Philadelphia
By Pat Loeb
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Elected officials and other adults have tried to tackle Philadelphia's youth violence problem, but now a group of middle school students want to take the lead.
Mayor Nutter accepted an invitation to Richard Allen Charter school in Southwest Philadelphia just to see the school in action, but when students heard he was coming, they decided to make it count by presenting a proposal about what they identified as the biggest problem in their community.
Eighth grader Oye Fakeye was among the students asking the mayor to make conflict resolution training mandatory in elementary and middle school citywide.
"Most of the violence is between the ages of 12 to 21 and the people that do these crimes, they're frustrated about life. They're kids who don't know where to go, they don't have anybody to lead them," said Fakeye.
The students promised the mayor a formal proposal and he promised to take it to the School Reform Commission. Fakeye says the students are determined.
"We have a certain level of success that we want to reach and to mount that we will understand this thoroughly
