11 minute read
Education
Global African-Centered Clean Up Project Focuses on Health and the Environment
Sam P.K. Collins WI Staff Writer
For the first time since the pandemic, children at Roots Public Charter School in Northwest will once again participate in community service activities. The latest gathering, scheduled for this weekend, counts as part of a global movement taking place in parts of the United States, the United Kingdom and Africa.
On November 12, Roots PCS will participate in the Black Star Action Network International (BSANI)’s Be Clean campaign, an annual event that has roots in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Throughout much of the morning, young people and adults will engage in dialogue about health and the environment before walking through Manor Park and Brightwood Park in Northwest to pick up trash.
Bernida Thompson, founder of Roots PCS, said the Be Clean campaign aligns with her school’s values.
“We work with children to raise their awareness and help them [fulfill] their political and economic community responsibilities,” Thompson said.
“A part of our mission is to encourage success leading to self-reliance, economic, social and political contributions to society,” she added.
Organizations partnering for this endeavor include the Universal Negro Improvement Association Reconciliatory Committee 2020 and the Pan-African Federalist Movement of North America,
The World Health Organization connects diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, intestinal worm infections and polio to unclean water, and the lack of sanitation. Experts say that nearly half of the people living on the African continent will face these conditions during their lifetime.
BSANI launched the Be Clean campaign in the fall of 2017, months after the Mount Sugarloaf mudslide claimed hundreds of lives in Freetown, Sierra Leone and threatened to exacerbate the spread of disease.
In the aftermath of the mudslide, organizers gathered children from the community and cleaned up marketplaces to address concerns about a cholera outbreak. BSANI members didn’t want Sierra Leone’s then-presidential candidates involved in the program, except for Pan-Africanist Karim Bah. Still, the clean ups attracted their attention.
It even inspired similar movements in the West African country, and later a mandate by Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio who required residents clean up public areas once a month for more than a year. Freetown Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, Bio’s political rival, also coordinated similar projects.
Five years later, BSANI’s Be Clean campaign not only has a presence in Sierra Leone, but other countries adopted the program, as well, including Monrovia, Liberia; Lagos, Nigeria; and Gunjar, Gambia. Partnering organizations are located throughout the U.S. in D.C, New York, Detroit, Jacksonville, Florida, and Oakland and San Diego, California, as well as in Birmingham, United Kingdom.
In an era where cholera, Ebola and COVID have ravaged portions of the African continent, the Be Clean campaign’s educational component has become even more essential. BSANI members tour schools and other venues to distribute cleaning products and conduct workshops about proper handwashing and sanitation.
A young woman within their ranks has also created feminine products.
The group raised hundreds of dollars through a crowdfunding campaign to carry out these efforts without government assistance.
BSANI founder and head organizer Chief Mansa Foday Ajamu Mansaray said that the Be Clean campaign speaks to the power of Universal African Nationalism, as articulated by Marcus Mosiah Garvey. He said that BSANI will work to institutionalize these events so that disaffected youth on the African continent and around the world will continue to receive compensation for their good deeds.
“We can have teams in D.C., Detroit, and Monrovia to combat and fight against gentrification, and promote volunteerism and Pan-Africanism,” said Mansaray, a repatriate from Pennsylvania who has lived in Sierra Leone for a decade.
“The Be Clean campaign is one of those things that would be similar to the Black Panther Party’s breakfast program. It took the Black Panthers to organize the parents in the same way. No one can deny that everywhere Africans live, we can be clean -- not only in our environment but our private lives.”
“It’s important for our children to focus on the school community, environment and health because if you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything. That’s the bottom line. Our environment is directly related to our health,” emphasized Thompson.
For more information about BSANI’s Be Clean Campaign, visit BSANI. org. WI @SamPKCollins
5 Roots Public Charter School in Northwest (Courtesy Photo)
After Nearby Shooting, Some Roosevelt Staff Members Concerned about Emergency Response
Sam P.K. Collins WI Staff Writer
Nearly two dozen staff members at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Northwest stayed home on Monday out of concern about what some described as inconsistent leadership, lax communication, and lack of preparation for on-campus emergencies.
The recent emergency that triggered this sentiment occurred on the morning of November 2 when the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) responded to reports of gunshots in the parking lot Roosevelt shares with nearby MacFarland Middle School.
Staff members and students getting their day started heard the gunshots, some of which damaged teachers’ cars. Accounts include details about people outside of Roosevelt running for cover and even attempting to enter the building after administrators initiated a lockdown.
One staff member who spoke on the condition of anonymity said administrators lifted the lockdown in less than an hour and kept the normal schedule intact, even though teachers and students in some parts of the building hadn’t yet heard from them.
An email The Informer later secured showed that Roosevelt’s acting principal Brandon Eatman communicated with staff members about the shooting in the early afternoon.
The staff member said that without opportunities to practice during lockdown drills, teachers had no idea of how to navigate the emergency, especially as students reacted to by-the-minute reports about the shooting circulating on social media.
“We’ve done multiple fire drills this year already, and it’s absurd that we haven’t done one lockdown drill,” the staff member said.
“There are a lot of new teach-
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EDUCATION
Annual Hoodie Season Event Promotes Community, Self-Reliance
Sam P.K. Collins WI Staff Writer
Over the last seven years, an annual birthday celebration has incrementally morphed into an exercise in philanthropy and community organizing. So much so that it recently attracted hundreds of people eager for a good time and solutions to some of the District’s most pressing issues.
During the most recent installment of the event known as Hoodie Season, nearly 400 participants not only donated 90 hoodies and helped raise thousands of dollars for a local nonprofit, but sat front row center as up-and-coming local acts showcased their talents on a stage at the Well at Oxon Run in Southeast.
“Black people have been under attack from every angle. The only way to beat systemic racism and oppression is being systemic and strategic in building up our communities,” said Dwight Lacy, founder of Hoodie Season.
“We have to analyze the system that is put in place to trip us up,” he continued.
“Once we do that, we can use our collective resources and tap into the seven Kwanzaa principles to build from within. That’s the only way that we can get this slice of this American pie,” Lacy added.
For this year’s Hoodie Season event, Lacy collaborated with D.O.L.L.S. [Daughters Overcoming Life’s Lessons] and Dreams and the Hustlers Guild.
D.O.L.L.S. and Dreams, a nonprofit organization providing life skills and educational support to young women, will distribute the donated hoodies to District public school students. Meanwhile, Hustlers Guild will use the funds collected to conduct programming focused on college readiness, professional development and innovation.
During the fall of 2015, the first Hoodie Season was held in conjunction with Lacy’s belated birthday celebration. Weeks after recovering from an illness, Lacy hosted a party at his apartment complex and invited his friends, all of whom he encouraged to wear hoodies in anticipation of the changing weather.
When Donald Trump entered office in early 2017, Lacy made plans to channel Hoodie Season’s positive energy in support of the Hustlers Guild at the time when its founder, Jason Spears, a former Obama administration official, launched the nonprofit.
Two years later, in 2019, Lacy started selling tickets to the event to generate funds for Hustlers Guild.
In the weeks leading up to the most recent Hoodie Season, a flyer circulated online with images encouraging civic engagement and control of one’s affairs, themes Lacy continues to promote.
On November 5, guests who converged on the Well at Oxon Run during an unseasonably warm day enjoyed barbeque from JetSet BBQ and Colby’s BBQ, both Black-owned businesses. Nearly a dozen vendors scattered throughout the venue also sold candles, handcrafted jewelry, original artwork, and other merchandise.
DJ Hamp kept guests grooving well into the evening hours while members of The Arguing Brothers Podcast conducted a livestream.
By nightfall, guest Eryn Murray had set up shop by the bonfire and spent time with a friend who just moved to the District. Throughout most of the Hoodie Season event, Murray perused the different vendor tables and nibbled on barbeque that took her back to her childhood in Kentucky.
For her, the diversity of events and the disposition of the guests reaffirmed what she has thought about D.C. since moving to the area a decade ago.
As a resident of Northern Virginia who frequents the District, Murray not only enjoyed another gathering with young professionals from various walks of life, but she contributed to the well-being of young people.
She said doing the latter in a fun and positive environment counted as the greatest aspect of Hoodie Season, which she learned about in an email weeks prior.
“ I like that Hoodie Season is donating to good causes,” Murray said.
“Next year, I’ll tell people to bring a hoodie, bring a friend and bring a drink to enjoy themselves. There were a lot of elements for people to experience all at once. This event was positive, uplifting and supportive of a good vibe.” WI @SamPKCollins
5 (L-R) Hoodie Season founder Dwight Lacy speaks with Donovan Springs and Ladeldrick McQuarter of the Arguing Brother's Podcast during the November 5 event at the Well at Oxon Run in Southeast (Photo courtesy of Jason Spears)
5 The Roosevelt High School community recently dealt with an active shooter scare. (Courtesy photo)
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ers who don’t know the lockdown procedure.”
Eatman and assistant principal for climate and culture Darryl Powell, didn’t respond to The Informer’s request for comment.
On its website, DCPS said it has coordinated guidance for emergency planning, response and compliance. Central office employees work with schools to ensure fidelity to protocol. In total, public schools are supposed to perform 10 fire drills throughout the school year, along with two lockdown drills, one shelter-in-place, one evacuation and relocation, and a bevy of other procedures related to natural disasters.
A lockdown drill scheduled well before last week’s lockdown will take place on November 16.
Months earlier, community members at Roosevelt experienced an emergency that required a response much like what DCPS said administrators executed on November 2.
In a statement, a DCPS spokesperson said that Roosevelt and MacFarland went into lockdown mode throughout that entire morning. Both schools lifted the lockdown once MPD completed its investigation. Until then, administrators cleared hallways and postponed outdoor activities while locking doors and prohibiting people from entering or leaving the premises.
DCPS didn’t respond to an inquiry about whether mental health professionals were dispatched. However, they said administrators communicated with all appropriate parties.
“DCPS actively works with MPD during these challenging incidents and remains in constant communication with school officials,” the spokesperson said. “We consult with MPD to ensure we can communicate incidents to DCPS families and share updates in a timely manner.”
As of Monday, 177 homicides have been reported in the District this year, along with more than 1,200 assaults with a deadly weapon.
Some shootings have happened near public and public charter schools. Toward the end of October, authorities found a young woman fatally shot in a car near Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Northwest. In August, a 15-year-old youth was charged with shooting and wounding two classmates near IDEA Public Charter School in Northeast.
Another shooting near Mundo Verde Bilingual Public Charter School in Northwest that month claimed two lives.
On the morning of November 3, teachers and staff members at Roosevelt took part in meetings where they shared ideas about how to move forward. As one staff member recounted, participants heard various perspectives on the situation, depending on one’s location in the school and whether their classroom had an intercom system.
The staff member who requested anonymity said that adminis-
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trators followed the proper steps when it came to gathering information, alerting teachers, and clearing the hallways.
However, they expressed empathy with frustrated colleagues.
“We didn’t know until 10 minutes later that something happened outside of the building,” the staff member said. “I felt I got the information [during the incident], but I could see if someone had another interpretation of how it went down.” WI @SamPKCollins
