Englewood Students March To "Make The Violence Stop"
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Students from the Englewood neighborhood raised their voices loud and clear Tuesday morning as they staged a peace march through their community.
"I think this is something that will make the violence stop," said Nacyra Anderson, a 7th grader at Charles Henderson Elementary School.
Anderson and more than 100 classmates marched about a mile through Englewood, chanting for peace.
The march was in response to the February shooting of 3-year-old Ayden Deer, and the November killing of one of their own, 8th grader J'Quantae Riles.
Ayden was shot while playing on the sidewalk outside his house in the 5600 block of South Wolcott Avenue in February.
J'Quantae, 14, was shot and killed on Nov. 7, 2015, just days after his family moved back to Chicago from Virginia. His mother, Franika Marshall, had moved her family to Virginia to escape the gun violence in Chicago, but moved back to her mother's house in Englewood after just a few weeks when things didn't work out in Virginia.
Marshall spoke to the students who marched in Englewood, urging them to continue speaking up about violence in their community, especially if they are witnesses to crime.
"Don't worry about what other people say, as far as snitching and stuff like that. If y'all care, speak up, for real," she said.
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Anderson said she and her classmates are doing what they can to bring about peace in Englewood.
"How this neighborhood used to be. A lot of kids used to come outside; now no kids. You won't see no type of kids outside in that park no more," she said.
As children, some of them have seen and heard things even adults shouldn't have to witness.
"My cousin, he was killed in 2012 from gun violence," said 7th grader Maliyah Williamson. "Last night me, my mom, and my brother, we were going to my aunt's house, and we heard shots, and it was getting closer and closer, and thanking God that he covered us. We're still here."
Anderson said it's a shame she and her fellow students have to hear gunshots on a regular basis.
"Every time we go outside for recess, we might hear gunshots. We might have to run in the school," she said.
Henderson principal Marvis Jackson-Ivy said there's a shooting in Englewood every single day, and her students have to walk through the streets where it's happening just to get to school.
Colleen Daley, executive director of the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence, said the march was organized by the students as part of the council's 16-week program that teaches young people to become advocates in their own communities.
