Following the protests and riots in Baltimore, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan closed the school district and imposed curfews. One of the questions churches and community organizations must deal with, following the closures is how to best support children both economically and psychologically. These restrictions could last as long as a week, and many students relied on school for a square meal or a safe space. This also comes at a time when the city’s public schools are facing major budget cuts. The state budget for next year shows aid to Baltimore city schools has been cut by $35 million. Yesterday, before the closures were ordered, the Baltimore City School District announced that it would make crisis counselors and mental health professionals available at schools throughout the city.
Churches, youth mentorship organizations and advocacy organizations are working together to provide a network of support for children and young adults in the city. Social media has helped spread the word, with websites such as getsocial.kineticslive.com pointing to organizations such as BmoreUnited that aid children during the riots.
The group BmoreUnited, which advocates for police accountability in Baltimore, posted a number of locations children and others could go to for church and community support, such as Pleasant Hope Baptist Church and Metropolitan United Methodist Church, which served breakfast and lunch, and St. Marks Institutional Baptist Church, which offered babysitting. Operation Help or Hush and Red Emma’s also served lunch specifically for city youth.
Ken Darden, president and CEO of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Metropolitan Baltimore, said the organization is open today from noon to 5 p.m., and is closing earlier for safety reasons. The club provides meals through Family League of Baltimore every day and today was no exception.
“The kids have somewhere to go if they’re looking for safety. The kids are afraid and we just want them to know that they can go to people who are understanding, and that this is not the way to go about this,” Darden says.
He says he’d like to see schools having discussions about the riots once schools reopen.
“There should be more discussions during the school day, discussions about what they should or shouldn’t be doing. I hope a lot of time will be spent talking about this,” Darden said.
Children who go to the club often have family members who might be protesting in some capacity, and the club serves as a safe place to avoid pressures to get involved, he says.
“Fortunately they’re not doing this, but sometimes their siblings and parents are getting involved and they know the club is the right place to go.”
Iris Kirsch, a high school English teacher who has nine years of experience in the Baltimore City school system, has been serving lunch at Red Emma’s for young people in the area. She says most students are staying inside with their families, not going out to stay at safe community centers or to the protests.
“I know students are at home with families, and I’ll say ‘Hey, I’ll help kids with projects and we’re serving food and normally they come and parents have no problem with that but we have a ton of food which is not being eaten,” she says. “So we have been taking it to sites where the community is having trouble getting groceries.”
Kirsch says people are going to the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood in particular, which is economically depressed, to deliver food to people.
“People are helping each other in a really beautiful way,” Kirsch says.
She added that teachers really hope school opens tomorrow so teachers and students can talk about everything that’s happened.
“All of the teachers are saying they hope schools open tomorrow. We don’t want to lose instructional time but it’s not just that. We also want to talk about these ideas with kids, like what do you think you should do in this situation,” Kirsch said. “If there is one kid and one adult, the kid is safe but the adult may be preoccupied and upset and nervous. One of the good things about school is that it’s a place to gather and talk about these things.”
Jana Shortt, director of communications for the Ferguson-Florissant School District, said that she thinks Baltimore City Public Schools is doing good work to ensure their students are safe.
“They had very good security plans in place, and they also anticipated this. They were getting encouragement to students stay safe,” Shortt says.
When protests and riots broke out in Ferguson last year, Shortt says it was the schools’ connections with community groups that helped pull students through such a difficult time.
“When everything unfolded, we immediately had to work on several fronts with students and families and in regard to our employees, we immediately began development and training because we have 2,000 employees, many of whom would be affected themselves,” Shortt says. “They would be our eyes and ears. Custodians in the hallway would be able to identify students in crisis.”
The school partnered with organizations for mental health support such as Great Circle, and Provident opened its doors for support for post-traumatic stress, referring people to other agencies as needed. Great Circle provided 25 therapists to the district’s elementary and middle schools.
She said the school district was lucky in the sense that they began developing a community partnership with mentoring and tutoring. Those community connections helped them work with a network of churches to help students get free lunches.
“Now, having the benefit of experience, we always want to act more quickly and we always want to be developing our network, and keep those connections maintained on an ongoing basis so when something does happen, we have those in place.”