That activity - especially the use of the tag, non-violence - resurfaced for me when Martin Luther King III, head of The King Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta, was recently quoted in the news media asserting that the tragedy that left a Congresswoman critically injured and six people dead in Arizona is a grim reminder that the country has not yet achieved his father's dream of a peaceful society. Then, hard on the heels of that observation, Angelenos were confronted with the presence of deadly violence in their public schools - first at Gardena High School where a loaded gun concealed in a student backpack went off, critically injuring two students and, then, in Woodland Hills, when an armed man attempted to gun down a School Police Officer.
It is tempting to consider these events as isolated from our daily lives. Not so, argues the National Center for Education Statistics which recorded 13 victims of school-site shootings across the country in the 2009-2010 academic year. In reflecting on that disturbing statistic, I realized that we who labor in and support Catholic education may want to reflect more deeply on what it is about our communities that keeps this trend at bay in our schools.
A November 2010 media report entitled:
Philly Nuns Save De Sales Catholic School, Make Peace Amidst Violence
reinforces what we have come to believe about Catholic schools and the virtues of private education - only with a twist - De Sales Catholic School is in the middle of the second highest homicide district in Philadelphia (in one 48 hour period there were 10 homicides on streets near the school). Sister Jeannette Lucey and Sister Constance Tuoey became overnight fundraisers when the Archdiocese of Philadelphia threatened to close this neighborhood Catholic school. But they didn’t stop at saving the school; they also set out to save the 500 children from the violence they faced each time they walked the streets of this impoverished West Philadelphia neighborhood.
How? By making the message of non-violence inescapable in the halls, classrooms and playing fields. A particularly creative approach has been the maintenance of a “Peace Wall” where students can nominate other students who have exemplified the value of non-violence. It is filled with pictures of little sinners and saints, all trying their best to model the School’s values – values that will get them through high school and into college and, ultimately, out of poverty. Even though the school is surrounded by poverty and violence, inside its walls, the values that have always characterized Catholic education create an environment where children learn to become their best selves.
The world occupied by La Salle High School in Pasadena may seem far removed from that of De Sales Catholic School in West Philadelphia until we realize, in a month that celebrates Martin Luther King, we all have dreams. In Pasadena, it may be to become a lawyer or a business person. But in West Philadelphia, Sister Jeannette’s students wrote in their essays on Martin Luther King: “I have a dream that I'll be able to go to the store without being shot', or 'I have a dream that I won't have to cover the windows so someone doesn't shoot into my home.” At least when they enter De Sales Catholic School, they don’t have to worry about the violence coming in with them. All schools need to be this haven for the poor and affluent, alike.
Martin Luther King III said it best regarding the tragedy in Arizona: "…it shows us how much work we must do to create the kind of nation where nonviolence is embraced."
