Men can teach, too

Anyone who’s been inside a public school knows there aren’t large numbers of male teachers in classrooms. In fact, male minority teachers make up less than 5 percent of all educators in the country, according to recent data. In 2020, Richmond Public Schools created a program called RVA Men Teach to address this disparity, retain and recruit male minority teachers and highlight them as educational experts and eliminate barriers that keep them out of classrooms.

On Saturday, April 15, the first RVA Men Teach Conference took place at Huguenot High School. Panel discussions, a hiring fair and CPR training were among the offerings to the approximately 100 people in attendance.

“We created the RVA Men Teach program with the understanding of the effects of the ‘invisible tax’ on male minority teachers,” said Rodney A. Robinson, 2019 National Teacher of the Year and organizer of the conference. “Our hope is that by providing support, recognition, and opportunities for growth, we can increase the number of male minority teachers here at RPS and improve the educational experience and academic outcomes of all students.”

Panel discussion participants included older men that the younger men can look up to as role mentors and role models: Mayor Levar M. Stoney, state Sen. Lamont Bagby, Virginia State University Dean Walter Willis, Virginia Humanities Director Yahusef Medina and former school principal Frank Scott.

Mr. Robinson led a discussion about the impact of COVID-19 on students and educators with two former Virginia Teachers of the Year (Toney McNair and Anthony Swann) and two Milken Educator Award winners (Ryan James and Ryan Sykes). Other breakout sessions led by RPS educators, leaders and support staff discussed advocacy, engagement, literacy and higher education.

The effort to increase Black male teachers in schools wasn’t lost on students at the riveting sessions.

“Seeing someone who looks like me in a position of authority and leadership has helped me realize my own potential and believe that I can achieve anything I set my mind to,” said Delonte Liggins-Johnson, a senior at Armstrong High School and panel member.

The RVA Men Teach program also presented the first RVA Men Teach Male Minority Teacher of the Year Award to Philip Canady, a teacher at Fairfield Court Elementary School, who was named the 2022 Fairfield Court Teacher of the Year.

Well done.

Something in the water

Speaking of teaching, producer and singer Pharrell Williams is a shining example of a Black male role model who, despite his fame, fortune and talent, stays true to himself, his home and values.

He also believes in speaking truth to power. Several years ago, the award-winning producer and singer was intentional about his quest to bring a fun, sun-soaked music festival to his hometown in Virginia Beach. In 2019, he came with it—a multi-day music festival known as “Something In The Water.” It was a success.

After skipping a year when the COVID-19 pandemic began, the festival moved to Washington, D.C., last year. It garnered mixed reviews, with reports of overcrowding and high praise for Pharrell’s performance, which featured appearances from the reunited rap duo Clipse and singer Justin Timberlake.

“Something In The Water” returns to Virginia Beach April 28 –30. A music lover’s dream, the festival will feature performances from Lil Wayne, Kamasi Washington, Grace Jones, Lil Yachty, Wu Tang Clan, SWV, Summer Walker and Masego, among many others. This year’s concert series includes an “RnB Block Party,” with music from Richmond music makers Mad Skillz and DJ Lonnie B, along with other prominent DJs for all three days.

It almost didn’t happen.

In a letter to Virginia Beach officials in October of 2021, the “Happy” singer wrote that the city was “run by and with toxic energy.” He mentioned the shooting death of cousin, Donovan Lynch, who was killed by police a few months prior and a 2019 mass shooting at the Virginia Beach Municipal Center. City officials expressed a desire to meet with the singer to discuss the future of the event, which reportedly brought more than $24 million to Virginia Beach area.

“I wish the same energy I’ve felt from the Virginia Beach leadership upon losing the festival would have been similarly channeled following the loss of my relative’s life,” he wrote.

Since the letter, the city of Virginia Beach reached a $3 million settlement with Mr. Lynch’s family while the officer who shot him was not charged.

“The city of Virginia Beach leaders have been eager to reconcile and move forward,” Pharrell said in a statement. “There is a pervasive feeling by almost everyone that the festival belongs in Virginia Beach, and the time is right to bring it back.”

I have been blessed to serve four community colleges – two in Virginia, one in North Carolina and now one in Pennsylvania. I had similar experiences at all four community colleges. Their tuition rates were affordable. Also, they offered generous scholarships. Their employees were studentfocused and empathetic. Finally, their course instruction and student services were top notch.

Community colleges are very different from four-year colleges and universities. Community colleges focus on instruction. Many four-year colleges and universities focus on research.

In addition, community colleges have our share of red tape – but typically less than four-year colleges and universities. The average age of community college students is typically higher than the average age of undergraduate students at fouryear colleges and universities. A larger percentage of students of

“We won’t be bent, we won’t be bowed, and we won’t be ordered to ignore the hearts and minds of the people who elected us, demanding commonsense gun safety in a state that has nearly none. The GOP of the Tennessee House of Representatives attempted to obstruct me and my colleagues from these goals and to shred our democracy. Instead, Republicans have only fanned the flames of hope that illuminate our movement, helping it to grow more powerful and glow more brightly.” –Tennessee State Rep. Justin J. Pearson

The crowd of more than 1,000 that gathered at Tennessee’s Capitol to demand safer gun policies was mostly white.

The three 9-year-old children and two of the three staff members who died in the mass shooting that inspired the protest were white.

The group of legislators who stood at the House podium with a bullhorn to lead protesters in the galleries was multiracial.

Only the Black legislators were expelled.

The Tennessee lawmakers who voted to expel House members Justin Jones and Justin Pearson while sparing Gloria Johnson shifted focus away from the outcry against gun violence – which cuts across every demographic – toward their own appalling racism.

In the eyes of the nation, when the House convened on the morning April 6, the Tennessee Three were facing expulsion because they protested gun violence. When it adjourned that evening, color attend community colleges compared to four-year colleges and universities.

Community colleges are not perfect, and we do not profess to be. Some of them have red tape. Yes, most of them are underfunded and understaffed. Yes, for some of them, it can be hard for students to navigate the organizational structure. These factors are problematic for some community colleges AND some four-year schools. A recent unbalanced article that received quite a bit of attention would have you thinking these challenges are unique to community colleges. They are not.

On average, our retention and graduation rates are typically lower than four-year schools’ retention and graduation rates. Why? Because for many community college students, graduation is not their goal. Learning new skills and earning more money are. We must stop assessing today’s academic success using antiquated measurements. Some people think com - the Justins had been expelled because they are Black.

The reality is that racial resentment and gun extremism are inexplicably linked.

Racial resentment is a “statistically significant” predictor of white resistance to gun safety policies, research shows. Yet those same “racially resentful” Americans are less likely to support “gun rights” if they believe Black people are exercising those rights more than they are.

Despite the reality that a gun in the household offers almost no protection against assailants, doubles the risk of death by violent homicide and triples the risk of death by violent suicide, the vast majority of gun owners cite “protection” as their reason for owning one.

Clearly, for many white gun owners “protection” means “protection from Black people.” munity colleges are not “good enough” and are facing a “reckoning.” They are wrong. Many of our students graduate from community colleges and then transfer to the best universities in the nation. Typically, they perform better academically at those universities than those who go straight from high schools to four-year institutions. Alumni at my community college have graduated from Cornell, Harvard, Penn and Yale. One of our most beloved alumni attended my community college as a single mother of five children. She graduated with a nursing degree from the community college. She went on to earn a bachelor’s degree and then was admitted to Yale Medical School. She is now a medical doctor. Did she encounter some red tape at the community college. Yes. Did she occasionally have a bad experience with advising?

The high rate of gun ownership in the South, even today, can be traced to the backlash against Reconstruction. The higher the rates of historical enslavement in a county, the higher the rates of contemporary gun ownership.

Nearly half of Southerners live in a household with at least one gun, compared to 28 percent of Northeasterners. Six of the 10 states with the highest rates of gun violence – including Tennessee – are in the South.

Tennessee has the 10th highest rate of gun violence in the nation and ranks 29th on the strength of its gun safety policies. Just eight days after the massacre at Covenant School, the state’s Senate Judiciary Committee voted to defer action on any gun-related legislation until next year.

Yes. Did she get bounced around from office to office a few times before getting her questions answered? Yes.

Today’s students at my community college would give similar responses. They would ALSO say that attending a community

While the anti-gun safety supermajority in Tennessee’s legislature’s may continue to block common sense policies for some time to come, their effort to silence the outcry against gun violence clearly has failed. Not only have both Justins been reappointed to the House, they return as national heroes.

The Nashville Metropolitan Council unanimously voted to reappoint Rep. Jones to his seat on Monday, and the Shelby County Board of Commissioners returned Rep. Pearson to the House on Wednesday.

“Today we are sending a resounding message that democracy will not be killed in the comfort of silence,” Rep. Jones said after the vote. “Today we send a clear message to Speaker Cameron Sexton that the people will not allow his crimes against democracy to happen without challenge.”

In contrast to the legislature’s stubborn refusal to address gun violence, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has issued an executive order strengthening background checks for gun purchases and called for a red flag law that would temporarily remove guns from dangerous people.

Gov. Lee and his wife, Maria, were longtime friends of two of those who lost their lives at Covenant School: substitute teacher Cynthia Peak and headmistress Katherine Koontz. Ms.Peak was expected at the governor’s mansion for dinner with Maria Lee on the day of the shooting.

It should not take a personal connection to the victims of a massacre to move a public servant to take a stand against gun violence. But now that Gov. Lee has taken the first step, he must continue the journey and the legislature should follow.

The Free Press welcomes letters college was one of the best decisions they ever made:

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• They are receiving an excellent education.

• They may have several job offers before they graduate. They will be able to transfer most, if not all, of their community college credits if they want to attend a four-year school after graduation. I continue to be amazed by community colleges. They are more than enough. They are life changing.

Linnie S. Carter, Ph.D., APR is the vice president of college advancement at HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College, and executive director of the HACC Foundation. She was a longtime resident of Richmond and is a two-time graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University.

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Fire Department mum about plans for training site

The Richmond Fire Department apparently will have to find another location for its planned fire training facility.

City Council appears to have accepted the Planning Commission’s April 3 recommendation to reject a plan to install the new training center on 2 acres of lawn at the Hickory Hill Community Center in South Side.

Council has not placed the commission’s recommendation on its agenda for reconsideration, which would allow it to stand.

The department has remained mum about its plans for the training facility since the commission’s vote. The department has said that it needs a new facility to replace a decaying building in Sandston that has been partially condemned and otherwise deemed unfit for use.

Women veterans get new health center

Richmond’s women veterans will have access to a range of health services with the opening of the new Women Veterans Health Center in Building 520, 1201 Brock Road Blvd. The new facility will have an official ribbon cutting to mark the opening on Friday, April 21, at noon.

Services to be offered include primary care, mental health services, mammography, gynecology, laboratory services, a pharmacy and other programs designed to meet the unique needs of veterans who identify as female.

More information about accessing Central Virginia VA Health Care System services is available online at www.va.gov/ richmond-health-care/

Crisis center opening at St. Joseph’s Villa

A regional center for youths suffering a mental health crisis is on the way.

A groundbreaking ceremony was scheduled for Thursday, April 20, to start construction on the youth Crisis Receiving Center that will be located at St. Joseph’s Villa, it has been announced. The Villa, a nonprofit support center for families and children located at Parham and Brook roads, is teaming with Henrico County to develop the center that will offer a range of intervention services to those ages 7 to 17.

The center is planned to initially provide services to six patients and expand to nine patients, according to the announcement. When completed, the center, though based in Henrico, will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week to serve youths in Central Virginia.

The primary goal of the new center is to divert youths from being taken to a hospital emergency room for treatment, where families might wait days for assessment and intervention, the announcement states.

At the center, youths would be assessed and then linked to the next appropriate level of care within 23 hours of being admitted, the announcement states.

Please take notice that a School Board of the City of Richmond public hearing to receive public comment on the renaming of Binford Middle School scheduled to convene at Binford Middle School, 1701 Floyd Ave, Richmond, VA 23220 on Monday, April 24, 2023 from 6pm to 7pm has been cancelled and will be rescheduled.

Please take notice that the School Board of the City of Richmond will conduct public hearings to receive public comment on the renaming of Ginter Park Elementary School, John B. Cary Elementary School, Binford Middle School, and George Wythe High School.

A public hearing will convene at Ginter Park Elementary School, 3817 Chamberlayne Ave, Richmond, VA 23227, in the Auditorium, on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 6pm.

A public hearing will convene at Binford Middle School, 1701 Floyd Ave, Richmond, VA 23220, in the Auditorium, on Monday, May 8, 2023 at 6pm.

A public hearing will convene at John B. Cary Elementary School, 3021 Maplewood Ave, Richmond, VA 23221, in the Auditorium, on Wednesday, May 10, 2023 at 6pm.

A public hearing will convene at George Wythe High the Auditorium, on Wednesday, May 17, 2023 at 6pm.

A public hearing will convene at Binford Middle School, 1701 Floyd Ave, Richmond, VA 23220, in the Auditorium, on Wednesday, May 24, 2023 at 6pm.

For information regarding the Public Hearings, please contact Pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act, any person requiring special accommodations to participate in this proceeding should contact the Clerk of the School Board no later than three (3) business days prior to the meeting hearing or speech impaired, please contact the agency

Stories by Fred Jeter