Teen Students Speak up About Gun Violence Taking a Heavy Toll on Them

Leaders of Birmingham are recognizing that violence in the community is taking a heavy toll on students while they do their best to focus on school and move forward with life.

This year has been particularly challenging for the Birmingham community. Last January, there were at least 11 students who died and more injured due to gun violence.

Two of these students, Javarius "Deno" Reid and Dwaine Thomas, went to George Washington Carver High School, which also lost students last year, due to gun violence.

The Birmingham Urban League launched a 100 Days of Non-violence Tour this fall to assist and support high school students in processing the current rise in gun violence in the city. Carver High School ws their first stop.

Teens gathered in the auditorium and saw how each one of them, people they interact with daily, is affected, afraid, and are dealing with the same emotions and things caused by gun violence that have changed them and their lives one way or another.

What are on the students' minds

Gustavo Garcia Perez is a senior at Carver, and he expressed that mourning classmates, who he remembers laughing in the school hallways or in football games, feels surreal. One day that classmate was just sitting right next to you in class, and then the next day they are totally gone, and for Gustavo that is "pretty sad and heartbreaking."

Gustavo, though, is grateful that over his four years in school, there has been a lot more security , which made students feel safe, despite fights still happening.

Ariyan Riggs, a junior at Carver, said that students are always fighting and she has gotten used to it, and is not surprised whenever it happens. She said that at the start, it bothered her, but now that she is already a junior, she sticks with her "mentality," telling herself repeatedly that she just needs to endure a few more months, and then she's done.

She expressed, though, that she is sad that she has kind of normalized the fights that surround her, but she now sees no point stressing over it, especially that it keeps happening.

Jacob, top of his class, the sousaphone section leader in band, and a member of the superintendent's student advisory team, expressed that he is proud of how far he has come. He is an indirect victim of gun violence as his mother was shot and killed when he was just four years old. He acknowledges, though, that life would have been different if his mother was still here.

He said that gun violence in their community changed his life, and the people around him. The death of his mother changed how he and his sisters live, how they are being cared for by the people. It changed his "whole lifestyle," and placed him on a different path. It changed him in a way that it has permanently instilled fear in him, especially when he is in large groups of people and with teens he isn't acquainted with.

"You know, this generation really do take it to the next level for no reason. Your just looking around, peeping your area, watching. Just being on edge, keeping your eyes glued to everybody. Making sure [there] ain't nothing. And if you see a little stuff pop out, you like, 'yeah, it's time to go. It's a little stressful, but I done got so used to it," Jacob opened up to WBHM.

Read Also: Cops Warn Kids About Realistic Toy Guns

Long-term effects of stress on students

All three students stated that they try to avoid conflict as much as they could when they see it in school or in the community. However, Tamika Holmes, the founder of the Community Care Development Network, believes that sometimes, conflict is unavoidable.

Holmes grew up in Birmingham, and CCDN, a nonprofit that helps families when they're in difficult times, was partially born out of her childhood experiences.

At work, she has witnessed how people have become numb seeing their loved ones die. Further, it has caused a lot of children to have Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a mental health problem that is brought about by a traumatic event in one's life, which has a long lasting effect even after the trauma.

As Harvard Health Publishing stated about the effects and long-lasting toll that children are experiencing, this could mean "an entire generation could be forever damaged in ways we cannot change."

Holmes alarmingly said that young people in certain parts of their community are not planning for college, but are actually "basically planning for their funerals."

As for Jacob, the hope isn't lost. He believes that he and his friends and generation just need guidance from adults. Adults should start talking to them about the issue, because the more they are informed, he said, the more they can have the power to understand, avoid and fight against it.

Related Article: Mental Illness Leads More To Suicide Than Gun Violence