ABOVE: Phillip Davis, Sr; father of gun violence victim Aniyah Davis; delivers keynote address and Thursday evening’s youth-led town hall.
With Project Success hosting, and every seat in the Laura Lee Fellowship House gym taken until it was standing room only, Thursday night’s (July 31st) youth-led town hall on gun violence was definitely a major event. Local dignitaries were all over, including Mayor Williams and Police Chief Yates.
The keynote speaker was Phillip Davis, Sr; who lost his daughter Aniyah Davis to gun violence in Winter Park in June. He stated that “If you can’t allow yourself to be corrected for doing something wrong; then you are part of the problem.” Davis said later that; yes, he was talking about families, and parents.
AUDIO: You know who your child is. You know what you raised. You can’t act like you don’t, or pretend like you don’t; but you know what it is. Don’t act surprised, or misguided, or act like nothing happened; or you child’s an angel when you know it’s not.
(1st Picture) Mary Catherine Roberson speaks at start of youth-led forum. (3rd Picture) DHS graduate Curtis Beasley IV takes his turn at the podium.
2024 Danville High School graduate Curtis Beasley IV, now at the U of I, was one of the student panel participants. He says a consistent unified community effort against gun violence is something he’s never known; considering that some of his most vivid childhood memories involved avoiding gunfire.
AUDIO: So many of my peers, so many of my friends; my schoolmates, my teammates in whatever sports I’ve been involved in; passing away from gun violence. You know there’s a sense of concern for a few days, and I feel as though there hasn’t been too many things I’ve seen where our community has come together, for the betterment of the youth.
Malia Roberson, going into her junior year at Danville High School, says that’s exactly the problem; the shock from a gun tragedy wears off and nothing changes. She says town hall meetings like this need to be regular, to PREVENT gun violence, and not just to react to it.
Danville’s Police Chief Christopher Yates and Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr listen during town hall forum on gun violence.
AUDIO: Someone loses their life; it becomes, “let’s find a way to come up with a solution so this doesn’t happen.” But I feel like that never happens; there’s never a solution. We need this to be a continuous conversation, as opposed to just “we’re all here today; but after today, it doesn’t matter.”
Superintendent John Hart was very happy with the current and former District 118 students who participated.
AUDIO: I’m very proud; very impressed. I feel like if change is going to come, it really needs to come from the youth. So, I’m excited with the ideas that they have; and they’ve identified problems and are working on solutions. And that’s what it’s going to take. It’s going to take community outreach to make changes.
FOR MORE ON THURS JULY 31ST YOUTH-LED TOWN HALL ON GUN VIOLENCE, SEE THIS NEWS-GAZETTE ARTICLE BY JENNIFER BAILEY: https://www.news-gazette.com/living/danville-teens-want-more-urgency-in-preventing-gun-violence/article_c6ebfb31-8724-4a2e-be71-12f1bdf835b2.html
