Tresa: The last two years I have not lost a child to violence. In the past I lost quite a few children to shootings. I had one young man who was found in a garbage can; he was a sixth grader. Last year the mom of three of my children a kindergartener, a second grader and a fourth grader was killed at a gas station down the street from the school. She was shot in broad day light while her children were in school. We have had instances where whole neighborhoods were after people because of gang violence. There have been 10 or 12 families that will go to someone’s house and throw a Molotov cocktail through the window or go with bats or surround the house and they can’t get out. So we have to go and try and talk to the people and try and get them to leave them alone. Now does it work, yes sometimes…. but for only a short period of time. So it has affected us a lot.
Shawntrice: What suggestion can you give that might help the violence in the city as an educator.
Tresa: There are children in communities like Austin, Roseland and Englewood that are suffering from a lack of empathy; they have nothing inside and we have to work on bringing that out. I think we should reach out to our churches which need to be more active, and our social services agencies. We need after school programs that will target soft skills. If you don’t have empathy for another person and if you don’t know what that is…. If all you know is survive, survive, get it, get it then how do you love someone? How can you feel sorry for someone? If you can’t empathize, it’s easy for you to hurt and kill someone. We need help in the areas of socialization.
Dr. Garrett celebrates with some of her youngest students.