MANSFIELD, Ohio–The Mend Mansfield Coalition may achieve more than reduce violence in the city.
It is already bringing people together. It also has the potential to impact the entire county, a point made at Tuesday’s meeting when Shelby Mayor Steve Schag and interim Shelby Police Chief Lance Combs said they plan to participate in the Unity in the Community Rally on Saturday.
In a room full of local government leaders, civic leaders, and residents. several people shared their thoughts on measures that can be taken to “mend Mansfield.” Their ideas weren’t about implementing laws or costly programs, they were ideas consistent with the rally message: We are here. We care.
“We can take guns off the streets, but the fact is that we have to be able to provide job sources for those individuals who don’t have jobs, economic opportunities, education opportunities; our school system ought to be the best school system in Ohio. We just have to change the mentality and mindset of not doing to become the doers of our community’s best interests,” said Rev. Derek Williams.
Richard X
Richard X, his name a reflection of his membership in the Islamic community, made the point that the city’s youth weren’t accounted for in the audience, except for himself as a young man who was once a “kid on the streets.”
“Me being from the streets… As you look around the room, the one thing that’s missing is the youth. For us to really be effective, we have to find a way to connect with the youth. I say that because when you were in elementary, I know most of us growing up, we wanted to be firemen. We wanted to be police. But something happened between elementary and middle school that we all look at enforcement as the enemy. So that’s something that has to be erased because I know that Officer Coontz, now the chief of police, he’s always dealt with respect and dignity with us in the community, said Richard X.
“In the street people don’t care how much you know, it’s knowing that you care.”
“I’m just being honest with you. I’ve been in the community and I’ve talked to with them and they all feel like the police are there to run them off the block, but really you’re not; you’re there to protect. You know, so we have the accountability. We can reach out. There’s drugs in the community, there’s prostitution in the community, but all the people in the community is not all of it. So it’s kind of hard for the officers to decide between who is who and who is what. So if we can help bridge the gap between law enforcement and the community…It’s not that they don’t want to help, but some of us don’t want to be labeled a snitch because we have to be able to come back and deal with the community,” X continued.
He suggested it’s people like him who can reach those on the streets. But law enforcement, he suggested, can make a difference in personable ways. He explained that one time when he was younger he needed a ride from the movie theater.
“Officer Coontz said, ‘Well, I’ll give you a ride home.’” There was laughter in Tuesday’s audience when Richard X gave his dumbfounded internal response to the idea of a police officer taking him home to “the community.” But he accepted Coontz’s offer.
“I trusted him enough and I thanked him. It meant something to me….If we’re going to change the community, one thing we have to do, is change the thoughts because thoughts are the forerunner of actions,” said Richard X, “How do we do that? One thing is that people who have trades are retiring and most children in this generation, they want to go to trade school.”
He suggested that they need those opportunities. “Show them a new way, so they don’t have to use drugs, so they don’t have to prostitute…I’m speaking from my own life. I’m not scared to stand before you on account of I used to be in the streets. I used to be one of them. So I have the passion and love for them. I don’t agree with what they do, but I don’t turn my back on them.,” he added.
He went on to suggest the churches need to end “spirit of gang-banging.” “I’m from this church, I’m from the nation of Islam, I’m from this congregation. When the youth look at that what they say to me is, ‘You all gang-banging other religions, brother Richard. We ain’t got time for that,” So we have to show a united front and put aside the spiritual warfare that some of us have—not all of us. We need to have unity and love,” he concluded.
Renda Cline
Mansfield City School Board President Renda Cline said she was glad to see the Mend Mansfield activity and suggested a need for cultural diversity training. “I think a lot of times we’re not reaching children; we’re not reaching one another because we don’t know where we come from. I think that’s important for us as a community to get out and get the word out,” said Cline, “to connect with those people who we’re all a part of. We’re a part of them: that body comes from somebody’s family and we’re not reaching them because we don’t understand them.”
She said it was important to have cultural diversity training for the schools’ teaching staff.
“That will help our teachers to reach the students that they teach,” she said, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care and we have to show them that we do care. A lot of us reach so many different people, but we’re all the same people, we just come from a different place. Maybe our home didn’t start out the same as everybody else’s home started out but we’re all on the same journey. We’re all headed in the right direction, and even those who are lost, we need to remember: Reach back, pick them up and bring them with you, but we have to show them where we’re going. We have to know what our plan is; we have to be able to direct in the right direction.”
Kirsten DeVito
Prospect Elementary Principal Kirsten DeVito explained that the school has a basketball court and it became a place that youth were hanging out at. She said last summer there were youth at the basketball court, playing music and some were vandalizing and discarding trash. “So I put a trash can out for them. My family and I and some other staff took freeze pops out to these kids. These aren’t my little elementary school kids,” she said explaining that they were older youth.
She told them if they came to play basketball, she’d give them water and freeze pops but they needed to be respectful of the school property—and they weren’t always and they were faced with the consequences when they broke the basketball hoops. She took the hoops down—and she will put them back up.
“Those big guys came into my school this year and helped me move things. Their loyalty is unbelievable because they know somebody cares,” said Devito, “and that’s what we have to do. It’s not these huge things we have to do. I love when the sheriff or the police department or the firemen show up one day and play basketball with these big kids because their little brothers and sisters are with them. That’s what’s going to make the difference. It’s showing that you care, so when things come up in violence and crime, there is a lot to be said about trust and loyalty and that’s what it’s going to take in building these relationships, one step at a time. It’s the little things that are going to make a difference.”
She added, “Even though I only have K-3 students in the building, I have to tell you, it starts with K-3—no longer middle school. Police officers to me are heroes. There’s good and bad in every profession, but the reality is they are here to protect and serve; and I can tell you with even the littlest kiddos in my school what is put in their heads in what they think of law enforcement isn’t healthy. And it isn’t a good thing. I opened my doors up to the police department and the fire department: Please come visit. Wear your uniforms; walk the halls. I know that several officers have done that and it made a huge impact on the way our students look at law enforcement.”
The Mend Mansfield Coalition’s Unity in the Community Rally will be held Saturday, April 11 beginning at Mount Calvary Baptist Church at 343 N. Main Street, Mansfield. The event will begin at noon. Everyone is invited. Rally participants will walk to Johns Park. For more information, contact Rev. Williams at 419-524-7993.
