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Mothers in 'gang for good' try to keep youths safe during spring break

Chicago Tribune - 4/14/2017

April 14--Instead of being a welcome respite from schoolwork, spring break brings heightened fear in some Chicago neighborhoods because more free time means more chances for children to become ensnared in the city's entrenched violence.

Tamar Manasseh knows these fears firsthand and is taking her group -- Mothers Against Senseless Killings, which she says has reclaimed one crime-plagued intersection -- to other neighborhoods Wednesday through Friday during Chicago Public Schools' spring break.

"We have figured out the formula to save our community, here," Manasseh said. "We want to share that with everyone else. If you want to save your kid, sit on your porch."

Three years ago, Manasseh, 39, and a number of other mothers fed up with the bloodshed decided to take action. Wearing bright pink T-shirts, they set up a row of lawn chairs at 75th Street and Stewart Avenue on the southern edge of Englewood in an effort to deter would-be troublemakers. Since then, the mothers have hosted regular block party-style sit-ins at the intersection during the summer.

So far this week, the shootings of six children 17 or younger appear to be on par with spring break shootings in 2015 and 2016. Last year, seven school-age children were hurt in gunfire in Chicago during the week of CPS' spring break; four were injured the previous year, according to data compiled by the Tribune.

On Monday, an 11-year-old boy was shot in West Pullman. Two 12-year-old boys were shot Tuesday in Old Town trying to buy snacks at a convenience store, as well as a 15-year-old in a separate incident in Austin. A 16-year-old boy was shot in Ashburn and a 17-year-old was shot in South Shore on Wednesday. At least three of the victims are CPS students, and all but one of the shootings occurred during daylight hours.

At least 114 children 17 or younger have been shot -- 19 fatally -- in Chicago this year, according to the data. The toll continues 2016's violent trend in Chicago, where more than 4,300 people were shot and more than 760 were killed, the most in nearly two decades.

"We've seen so much, it's made us afraid," said Manasseh, the mother of a 21-year-old daughter and an 18-year-old son. "We don't want to speak up because it might be us next. We don't want to sit outside because it might be us next. But what we learned at MASK is that there's no force stronger than a band of mothers bent on changing their communities and saving their children."

The mothers are setting up shop on different street corners for three days this week in West Garfield Park, Englewood and South Chicago in hopes of encouraging other neighborhoods to try their approach.

Shootings have been noticeably less frequent around 75th and Stewart, where mothers like Kendra Snow helped set up MASK's Passover-inspired Seder dinner under a tent Tuesday for neighbors and members of Chicago's Jewish community. Tribune data show a late-night shooting in October was the only one on the block in the past year and a half. Previously, five shootings were recorded from June to October 2015.

Wearing a shirt that read "Moms on Patrol," Snow, whose son survived a shooting three years ago, said the network of mothers has empowered neighbors who used to think they couldn't make a difference.

"You need more than just you," said Snow, who's lived in the neighborhood for more than 35 years. "... But if we have a force behind us, if there are other moms that care, then us teaming together just (makes) it work. I was like, why not?

"I'm always of the opinion that a concerned mom always made a difference."

The group also includes male volunteers, such as 23-year-old Jermaine Kelly, who admits he was skeptical of Manasseh's plan at first, believing she would be "one and done." But when she showed up day after day, he started to buy into the grass-roots effort. He recently stepped up as a role model for high school boys in the neighborhood, calling them out for not wearing a belt or persuading them to abide by an unofficial 8 p.m. curfew.

"We make people feel like they can come outside," Kelly said.

Curtis Clayton and Krystal Falkner don't feel that way about their Marshall Field Gardens apartment in Old Town after their 12-year-old son Adrian and his friend were shot in front of the store across the street from their apartment complex.

As his father spoke to him about what happened as the boy lay in a hospital bed at Lurie Children's Hospital, Adrian got emotional, as if he did something wrong.

"I told him, 'You ain't do nothing wrong. You was just at the wrong place at the wrong time,' " Clayton said Wednesday.

Because Adrian was shot during spring break, Falkner fears summer break even more.

"We as parents have to get out here and rally, fundraise for these kids ...," she said. "Summer's gonna be here. People don't have money to plan trips and take they kids nowhere."

MASK's mission is more important than ever when kids are on break, Kelly said.

"That's when things get heated because it's more people outside, people have more free time," he said.

Manasseh agreed. "It's a panic," she said, comparing spikes in crime during school breaks with similar trends on weekends.

"If you follow social media, on Friday night, everyone is so excited about the weekend," Manasseh said. "On Monday morning, everyone is moving out because of all the murders that took place over the weekend."

The same is true during school breaks, she said.

Kelly said he was recently among neighbors who helped defuse an argument when a dispute between two high school students escalated.

Making even small inroads, fight by fight, street corner by street corner is worth the effort, Manasseh said.

As a child growing up in Englewood, she remembers the grief upon learning family members, including a cousin and an aunt, had been shot. She recalls once having to explain to her schoolteacher that her tardiness was due to her family discovering a body near their home.

Even years after leaving the neighborhood for Bronzeville, stories of violence, like a 9-year-old girl fatally shot washing her dogs in 2009, still troubled Manasseh.

Though the group's approach may be simple, Manasseh said members plan to continue their commitment to the community. On Monday, they held a ceremonial groundbreaking for a plot of land they bought near the intersection where the sit-ins began that will be turned into green space and a playlot for children.

"These pink T-shirts do something," Manasseh said. "It's like our gang colors. We're like a gang for good. If you see a mom with a pink T-shirt, you know she's a friend, and she's here to protect you."

Chicago Tribune's Heather Schroering and Rosemary Regina Sobol contributed.

tbriscoe@chicagotribune.com

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