The Viable Third - Bernard Powell

The level of crime and violence in the 3rd District has escalated in the eyes of the media of late and has gotten the attention of the religious faithful. I haven't looked at the actual crime statistics to know if the homicide rate is up or down (I think it stands at 87 for the year) or if violent crime is up or down for this year. But does it matter? Because regardless of the facts, the assumption is that violence is up and that it is much more dangerous in the 3rd district than ever.

Recent murders in Westport, on Broadway, and Downtown have all included discussion that suggests it is the Eastside violence that is encroaching on the rest of the city. Of course there is no evidence of this, but it is always the first assumption. The recent events with teens gathering on the Plaza suggest the same. My people always like to jump to the most obvious conclusion - that black=crime and danger.

A local minister has glommed onto the bandwagon too. I include the video here ONLY because he mentions the subject of this post - Bernard Powell.

Bernard Powell was a civil rights leader who lived at 28th and Brooklyn in the 3rd district. He had a national presence as well as a local impact. He is attributed for having said the phrase, "Goldmine or Ghetto - The Choice is Yours." He believed in the 3rd district and I do too.

Powell was shot to death at 27th and Indiana in April 1979. He was only 32 years old. He made his mark in this world while in his 20's. The old heads who cling to power in this city need to remember that - young people are viable leaders too.

There is a very nice memorial erected to Powell (in 1991) at Spring Valley Park on the Brooklyn Avenue side. His boyhood home overlooks the park. I've driven by there a million times and decided to stop one day. Then I investigated the life of this young man. Here is his bio as written on the Black Missouri site. Here is the City's description of the memorial and fountain (fitting for a Kansas Citian). Bernard's sister, Teola, ran for city council in the 3rd district in 2007. A look at the KC Star archives online only goes back to 1991. Any research on Powell's death will have to be done in the library with microfilm. From all accounts I have found, in books and other historical accounts, Powell was active in bringing civil rights and social justice to Kansas City's Eastside. Desegregation of the city swimming pools, opening up real estate opportunities, and voting rights were all on his agenda - but in the 1960's anything seemed possible.

Here is a photo slideshow I put together to commemorate this great place - the memorial at Spring Valley Park and this great citizen, Bernard Powell. He knew the 3rd District was viable. I do too.

The Viable Third

A few years ago you may remember a project that airick leonard west started called the Viable Third. He and I pledged to spend all our discretionary money (groceries, gas, entertainment, clothes, etc.) only in the KCMO 3rd council district. We did it to demonstrate to those who live outside the district that it is a viable place, despite the violence and chaos that is its normal persona. I even took on a research project, the KC DrillDown, to demonstrate the economic viability of retail in the underserved urban core.

Having lived in the 3rd district for several years now (I include my part time life when I am not in NJ), I feel that the value of the district needs to be highlighted once again. The racism that is spewed on the internets at sites like TKC are very disturbing to me. The inability of City Hall to have ANY strategy to address improvement in the district is appalling. The level of violence in the district that is going unchecked is heartbreaking. There is an election in February for 2 council seats in the 3rd and 2 seats in every other district along with the Mayor. This is a crucial election. We can either solidify our worst behaviors and go back to the KC of not-so-long ago - openly racist and proud of it, or we can take the next step in the transformation of this city and follow the lead of the KCMO School District. That is the only entity in town that is getting it right. But as the resignation of Michelle Rhee and the mayoral loss in Washington, D.C. just showed us, transformation ruffles a lot of feathers and can be bounced quickly. People have to demand accountability from their officials, demand to be a priority, and follow-through by being engaged citizens.

Here is the Feb. 2011 political line-up so far and I expect that there will changes before the filing deadline which is Nov. 17, 2010. There is no official listing on the Election Board site yet. But here are the expectations from the political pundits and those who are campaigning.
3rd district - in district: Sharon Saunders Brooks (incumbent), Michael Fletcher
3rd district At-Large: Melba Curls (incumbent), Brandon Ellington

Mayor: Mark Funkhouser (incumbent), Sly James, Mike Burke, Deb Herman, Jim Rowland, Jonas Hughes.
Let me know who I have missed.

What I want to know from each of these candidates is:
1. what is your agenda to improve the 3rd district?
2. how will you go about building and implementing this agenda?
3. what is your number 1 priority for the 3rd district and why?
4. If an incumbent, list your accomplishments for bringing improvement to the district.
5. In 50 words or less, describe the 3rd district as you see it.

If every voter, blogger, media person, minister, school board member, business person, and others who have an interest in the 3rd district asked these simple, but pointed questions - we might actually have an election that means something. Feel free to appropriate these as your own and ask them whenever you have the chance.

I'm going to devote space on this blog to the viability of the 3rd district and the politics that surrounds it. But this is not just about who is running and what the latest political gossip is. I leave that to the other blogsters in KC. I want to raise issues and remind people outside of the 3rd district (who vote on the at-lard 3rd seat) that the district is much more than it seems. I am going to do a series of posts on the best spots and the best of history in the Viable Third from the perspective of an ally who lives in the district.

Joey the barber

The KC Star has a great article today about Joey the barber on Indiana Ave who cuts hair and runs a foundation to work to keep kids out of trouble. His own journey to where he is today is very compelling. The story spells out the hurdles, triumphs, and realities of eastside living. The comments made so far this morning on the Star site are all about how wonderful the story is - as if a fairy tale - because people on the westside, southside, northside, and suburbs rarely see a story like this.

What struck me is that life on the eastside is very different than all the other parts of KC. The eastside has more violence every day. People on the eastside have to negotiate that violence. There is poverty, homelessness, blight, an entirely different retail landscape, and sometimes desperation and hopelessness. But I also know that people live their lives every day on the eastside, just like the rest of Kansas City does. And I don't think the KC experience is any different than any other city in the US. I see the exact same scenario in Camden with the suburbs looking askance at the city.

People outside of the 'hood look at it like it is some kind of foreign space. This is because the media generally sensationalizes the problems as if it is the sum total of eastside daily life. Because the violence and poverty is so very different from all the other parts of the city, it is seen as exceptional - not good exceptional, but different exceptional. It is that exceptional quality that makes it a curiosity and thus, newsworthy. This conversation needs to change.

If people outside of the 'hood understood the good things that go on - the people like Joey the barber - that are dealing with reality and not exceptions, then perhaps the people outside the 'hood would begin to grasp the gravity of the situation and be able to deal with it, instead of just ogling it.

Right now the good people of KC peer into the eastside as voyeurs through the window of tv news and the newspaper. Their perception is based on an assumption that because it is so very different from their lives, they can't possibly deal with it. They dismiss it as animals, thugs, people who don't deserve our help, and worse.

If the good people of KC were allies of the eastside, they would not be voyeurs and would have a more realistic understanding of what goes on and how to help. That is what is needed.

Thoughts?

Dividing Lines

BlogKC has an illuminating map depicting the racial divide in Kansas City. It's not new. It's been a visual for the city since the 1950s. It's just that we can now map it in stark relief. We did a series of these maps at UMKC for several different projects in 2004 and 2005. People see this, they say "wow," and then they move on - until the next time they see the map. Yet nothing changes.

Kevin Fox Gothem is the authority on how this came to be. Google his books and articles. They are quite well written and researched and very informative. We are divided overtly by public policy. It didn't "just happen." It is intentional.

There have been a few recent reflections on the racial divide in KC with some folks suggesting that US 71 is the new Troost. It's all the same geography - east meets west and west runs away.

Look at our political districts. Precincts don't cross Troost. Ergo, political districts are divided by Troost, mainly because we are an East-West city and all our districts run North and South. Imagine if we divided the city in wide East-West districts that were stacked on top of each other from North to South. Some people's heads would explode. But changing the political boundaries would be the most expedient way to integrate the city. Imagine Brookside and Blue Hills having the same city council rep - who would have to satisfy constituents on both sides of Troost. Why....the residents might have to get to know one another and get along!

We have an amazing opportunity in KC at the moment - redistricting. Not just once, but twice! There are ways to cut the population so as not to dilute minority voting strength and to keep geographical proximity (both required by the US Supreme Court), AND ignore Troost or any other East West boundary. Sadly, every map that has been drawn as a possible redistricting does not even try to ignore Troost. It's as if it is cast in some kind of stone. And, sadly it is - by public policy.

City Streets Invade Schools

I just learned that the Scholars at SWHS have formed a Scholar's Committee. check it out on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=157712014243496. Now this is handling business!!

The big changes in the Kansas City Missouri School District have resulted in some difficulties during the first week of school. Kudos to Superintendent Covington for personally dealing with the problems erupting at Southwest High School. This is a college prep HS located in the white and affluent part of town, that became an attendance-based school this year. The district closed another high school and 1000 new kids now join the existing 500 SW kids. That's a radical change for the neighborhood, the school, the kids. Change does not come easy. During the first week there have been fights at the school, significant student disruptions, and other incidents that look more like Central HS - in the urban core of KC. The Super has re-created an alternative school to ship out the disruptive students. I know a student at SW who started there last year. He's from the urban core and was very distressed that his streetlife was following him to this school. His first reaction was that he should flee to another school district. I told him to give it a week and luckily the Superintendent has not disappointed me.

But the issue here is not unruly kids or bad parents, which is what the news story comments state emphatically along with blog post comments. The unruly kids and bad parents are the RESULT of the complete neglect of the elephant in the room. White people have been just fine with treating black and brown people poorly, being racist, and neglecting poor neighborhoods. That damaging relationship shows up in unruly kids and bad parents. And guess what, those problems come right into the school hallways. And you wonder why DeShawn fights at school, but little Billy does not? Look at the streets people. The urban core has been neglected and abused for so long that residents now reflect that abuse.

Yes, government funds have been spent on the urban core. But there still are no jobs, no retail, and neighborhoods are used as dumping grounds.

Yes, the KCMSD spent millions on schools as part of the deseg case. But kids still can't read.

Yes, "programs" are run by well-meaning nonprofits, welfare flows, and do-gooders do good in the urban core. But those efforts have no impact on the core of the problem that is causing the need for those do-gooders and welfare. Racism, Bigotry, Classism, Fear, and the benefit of keeping a choke-hold on Disparity.

I've addressed all of this before. SWHS this week is a classic example of how this plays out. The public response is so predictable. The Superintendent has few options because his time horizon is right now, not 10 years from now. He has to make sure that learning goes on come Monday. So the thugs and trouble-makers have to go. They'll go back to the urban core and be tucked away so as not to threaten anyone else. In the short term, this seems like the only option. But it is not.

This city has the opportunity to begin healing if it will only take a bold step to do so. There are people in this city who could do amazing things with these kids, their parents, and all the communities involved. But white ego won't allow that to happen, because we are so, so, so invested in being right - THEY are the problem, THEY don't parent well, THEY are thugs, THEY don't want to learn. There is a problem, parents are not perfect, kids become thugs, learning seems meaningless when daily survival is paramount. We can't seem to see past the 3pm bell and then we get up in the morning and do it all over again the next day.

We need a circuit breaker. We need Ossco Bolton, airick leonard west, Jamekia Kendrix, Colleen Innis, and an assortment of other strong skilled people who get it, who understand young people and the urban core, who can spreak truth to power, and start healing this city. It's not a pipe dream, it's survival.

Responsibility is Yours for the Taking

Labor Day marks the official start of the fall campaign season. So expect to see a full-court press of advertising, dirty tricks, sleight of hand, and nothing resembling reasonable discourse for the next two months.

What we will likely see is a lot of immigrant bashing, blaming minorities for their own plight and bringing whites down with them, and other assorted intolerance of "others," which in today's politics is a pretty wide swath of the population.

The economic collapse brings out the need for scapegoats - who can be blamed? Repubs and conservatives blame the Dems and liberals, and vice versa. Whites blame people of color and vice-versa. Paranoids, otherwise known as liberatarians, blame Obama and Obama blames elitists (like Geitner perhaps?). Of course the joke is that the circular finger-pointing will leave no one standing after election day. The political aftermath may be worse than our economic condition.

At all levels of politics, leadership is in short supply. Everyone has an explanation for who is to blame and it is not the blamer! Example: in criticizing urban schools - teachers blame parents, parents blame teachers, students blame teachers, teachers blame administrators, and citizens blame all of the above. No one wants to look at their own contribution to the mess. Even in higher ed, I have become an end-around fighter. I like to call it, "proceed until apprehended." Keeps me looking good and shifts blame to all the administrators that stand in the way of my interests. Problem is, they get upset with me and feel they have to clean up my mess when they apprehend me. I'm generating progress while thwarting my own staying power. I saw the same thing in a NYT article today on public school teachers/administrators. Essentially their argument is that if administrators are blocking progress, let the teachers be administrators. But who will step up when those rallying teachers burn out doing double duty? "Let me do it" is not a solution as much as a shortcut that requires no dialogue or responsibility.

In the end, all this jockeying for position leaves the powerless even less powerful. That's probably the opposite of what many of the jockeys want or expect. Perhaps it's time to start thinking about including the supposed beneficiaries of our efforts to find out what they need to succeed.

Responsibility => Power:

1. have an open discussion with students and young people on a wide scale basis, not just the chosen representatives; likewise with union members, residents. A discussion continues until concluded - not for a set period of time while it is easy and the cameras are on.

2. dialogue up and down the chain of command and across stakeholders - keep it real and check the egos at the door. Call out presumptive and responsibility avoiding actions of yourself.

3. include parents, employees, voters, residents in a discussion of responsibility about education, crime, business, service provision, and the success of what we see as essential elements of our daily life. Again, a discussion continues until resolution and satisfaction are reached, not just until the hour is up. Don't have a meeting, have a dialogue.

It starts with you. What are you doing to take responsibility for the ills you see around you? And I am not referring to volunteering here - another form of "Let me do it."

Opportunity Knocks in Camden and KC...Will They Answer?

As I sit here in Camden, I'm reading stories about a 14 year old girl who is sentenced to 20 years in prison for a torture killing and the fact that the Camden City library system may merge with the County to keep at least one branch open. A poor city is fiddling while it's foundations burn to ashes. The mayor issued a press statement this week to reassure the community that she is working to keep the place afloat, but that the budget is completely underwater. It has been for years, but the Democratic governor and legislature kept propping it up so as to maintain some semblance of viability. The current mayor got stuck holding the bag when a Republican governor took over.

But those are just the superficial features of a city that is deeply damaged. Unfortunately, city leaders would much prefer to play superficial politics than to actually address the foundational problems of this city.

Next week I begin teaching a Community Development class in the new Ph.D. program of the same name at Rutgers-Camden. My goal is to provide an incubator for the most cutting-edge thinking we can generate on creating sustainable community development - that is sustainable economically, socially, environmentally, and politically, and provides reality-connected policy options for social justice, social enterprise, and citizen empowerment/capacity building.

I see other cities actually undertaking these issues - Detroit, Cleveland, Syracuse - the other poster cities for rustbelt decline. Camden can join those cities and succeed in a new economy. But it must engage its people and stop trying to deliver them.

I spent a good bit of my summer working on a campaign in Kansas City called Opportunity Knocks. The goal, which is being met, is to knock on all the household doors in the KCMO School District and have a transformative conversation with residents. A transformative conversation talks about what is possible, what is working, and why clinging to a negative conversation about the district is not getting us anywhere. A transformative conversation opens possibilities, empowers people to make a difference, and creates a collective path for engagement. Opportunity Knocks offered a half-dozen ways that people could be involved with the scholars, the district, their local school as a means to embrace that engagement. So far, nearly 1500 people have signed up as we brought that conversation to their doorstep. Many said they had never been personally contacted or asked. Many said they wanted to support the district, but didn't know how. Many said they understand the importance of having a functioning, quality school district but have felt it is beyond hope to make this district actually succeed.

Kansas City has experienced an extraordinary process this summer. Opportunity Knocks is an amazing success and it has another full week and weekend to go. It will succeed in hitting every area, neighborhood, and nearly every door in the district. But that is just the window dressing. The real issue is that people have been engaged, touched, moved, and inspired to consider a completely different conversation and aspiration for the school district. This will have an effect on the scholars. Imagine you attend school in a district where the news and all public commentary tells you constantly that your district sucks and it is a failure. How well will you learn? Now, imagine you attend school in a district where the news and public commentary tells you they want to do whatever it takes to ensure the district succeeds. Your learning potential may actually increase.

What goes on inside the classroom is primarily about teachers and students. But the baggage they bring to the classroom is an enormous barrier to learning or is an exceptional supplement to learning. There is a choice.

Camden has such a choice too. It can continue to live into a conversation that says it is a crime infested, broke-a$$ city that will always be losing, or it can create a conversation of renaissance. So far, the city leadership does not seem to understand these options. But I have a strong sense of expectation that if the conversation of renaissance were carried to the residents, it would resonate and transformation would occur. We forget how powerful we can be just by how we conduct ourselves. Waiting for someone to give us power is like waiting for a bus that never comes. Opportunity is Knocking, Camden...Will You Answer?

What Does It Take to Get Your Attention?

I am haunted by the stream of stories I read about Kansas City and the escalating homicide rate this summer. I currently reside in Camden, NJ - which is supposed to be the crime capital of the nation. Camden is a walk in the park compared to KC! The only reason KC does not end up higher on the crime rankings is because the city has more people. If crime rankings were crimes per square mile instead of crimes per 1000 people, KC would probably be #1.

61 homicides and counting and this is only July. Staggering. And much of the crime is east of Troost, through Brookside and South KC get their share too. However, the violence on the eastside is waaaaaaay out of whack. Nary a word is spoken about this. Not from the Mayor, city council, or civic leaders. Words are spoken by The Call, Alvin Brooks, various neighborhood and activist leaders. But it is only whistling in the wind. No one with any power is hearing us.

I have watched the crime and violence center in the south 80's and move to the mid 50's. Now the violence is moved to the high 30's. Yep, it is getting too close to my neighborhood and I don't like it, no sir, not one bit.

Meanwhile the Northeast has been blazing for some time and I hope that doesn't move south. I have no desire to be in the middle of two war zones. I have no idea where the violence is coming from, but I have an idea it is gangs and drugs, domestic violence, and the result of a great deal of frustration. In case the rest of the city hasn't noticed - there are no jobs, period. I'm so sick of various national political voices suggesting that people are not interested in working. People in my neighborhood would love to work IF THERE WERE JOBS available to them.

I seem to recall that the Mayor touted New Tools for Economic Development to foster assistance to the Eastside. Haven't really seen ANYTHING resulting from that gravy train except some bucks for the favored consultants. Our city council people are doing NOTHING substantial to stop the violence or improve economic opportunity.

I don't like the Tea Bags, but I really couldn't care less about them. People are dying in the streets and we spend time on a bunch of political sniping???? Have we become so callous that murders and shooting don't garner any attention? We don't need candlelight vigils, we don't need prayer vigils. What is needed is jobs and direction.

One of the efforts underway is the group "I am my Brother's Keeper" that organizes neighborhood action and the July event "Taking it to the Street". While it is a real gesture, it is preaching to the choir. Time to take the conversation out of the 'hood and into the boardrooms.

I understand how KC politics works - it has often been described as "parking lot politics" meaning that it works on informal networks of people talking, planning, and then acting. It is often out of sight, fraught with deal making, and compromised to death. It works in KC and is unlikely to change any time soon. So if those of us who are fed up with the violence and death in KC want to change things, then maybe we need to be "Taking it to the Parking Lot" and buttonhole every pol and civic leader in KC to get some traction. What KC leaders don't like is to be embarrassed in public and called on the carpet. They will respond to requests and suggestions that will enable them to be seen in a good light.

It is election season and this is a once in 4 years opportunity to work the parking lot politics. See you on the asphalt. Let's get this done.

To Kill a Mockingbird and KC's Leon Jordon

Apparently the media world is celebrating the 50th Anniversary of To Kill a Mockingbird (the novel's publication). The book has been a mainstay on high school and college reading lists and is considered by most whites to be a great tableau of anti-racist solidarity. A very different take on this is delivered by a great blog, Stuff White People Do and is worth a read. The post admonishes feel-good liberal whites for warmly embracing what is essentially a racist portrayal of black subjugation, and most whites are clueless to this interpretation. I know I was. White privilege is everywhere and even those of us who think we get it are often blinded by it.

I also read today the KC Star article about reopening the Leon Jordan murder case after 40 years. Leon Jordan was a major civil rights leader and black politician in KC during the 1960s and was a co-founder of the black political club, Freedom, Inc. The news article goes into a great amount of detail about possible motives for his slaying, the political alliances and enemies that arose during that time, and conflicts within the black community itself. It's a level of detail that I never knew and found fascinating in terms of understanding the responses of today's politics in Kansas City. Like the tender reminiscences towards To Kill a Mockingbird, most people gloss over the particulars of what issues were swirling at the time of Mr. Jordan's murder.

For most white people who believe they stand against racism, they really have no clue of the issues involved. Viewing racism as a "bad thing" is akin to being against animal abuse. It is quite superficial. To view racism as something that every white person is accountable for is a much different take on the issue. The lawyer in Mockingbird, forever and indelibly portrayed by Gregory Peck, is a white hero. He stands against the abuse of the accused and is a lone voice of reason in a hateful world. But the novel does not give us anywhere to go with this except that some white people are bad and that we should not treat black people this way. Therein lies the rub.

If white people remain focused on how we should or should not treat black people, then we haven't learned anything and racism still exists. White people never think in terms of anyone "treating" them a certain way. But we feel justified in talking about "treating" black people poorly or well. It's a level of privilege that many whites never fully appreciate, especially in terms of how it affects others.

The Jordan case in KC is riveting because it continues to be assumed that it was black perpetrators that killed this black civil rights leader. But the deep details, as written in this article, suggest that there was a black mafia run by whites that ran the drug trade on the Eastside and had a conflict with Jordan. Jordan also had black political rivals that may have wanted him out of the picture. A further suggestion is that as a civil rights figure, FBI Director Hoover may have wanted him taken out. But the biggest aha for me is that Jordan was a former KC police officer - and it doesn't sound like the police investigated their own on this one. Little mention was made of Jordan's rise to Lt. on the force in a time when racial tensions boiled over in KC.

Regardless of who killed him, and that is a chapter for someone to solve, the magnanimity of this leader is completely lost on most of white Kansas City. Freedom, Inc. is often viewed by whites as a black political club that elects their own as if this is unseemly. Meanwhile the Civic Council and other white political clubs are seen as providing political enlightenment to the rest of the city upon their candidate endorsements. This type of double standard is why there is criticism of To Kill a Mockingbird and why solving the Jordan case is not about civil rights.

White people have a lot to learn and responsibility to take on.

Fear of Others

Great post over at Race Has Nothing to Do With You on the fear spreading through Chinatown in LA. Stores are boarding up because the shopkeepers fear an LA riot by blacks. No clue what's going on, but the post reminds us that communication is essential in the face of fear.

Here in Kansas City a similar fear is brewing. As schools close and scholars transition to their new schools for fall, some neighborhoods are feeling like they are under assault from more students who don't look like the neighbors. One such transition is the students at attendance-based Westport High who will transfer to the signature school - Southwest College prep. This school will double in size and with mostly scholars of color. This has the affluent white neighbors in a pickle. They don't want to appear racist, but, everyone KNOWS that these students may bring crime into the neighborhood.

I've been to two neighborhood meetings on this topic. At the first meeting, organized by neighbors, it got fairly ugly in terms of the tenor and tone towards the likely bad things that would befall this neighborhood when new students arrive. The room was white, save for one person, and the white fear factor was in full swing. At one point, a man stated that if a group of these kids came walking down his street, well he would have to call the police, because who knows what mayhem would be brewing. Then he took it to the next level...what if someone got shot? (I think he meant if police killed one of these marauding teens) - then all hell would break lose. At that point, some pushback came into play with several people speaking up that the rhetoric needed to be dialed back.

The amazing thing is that all of these folks said, basically, I am not a racist- but, you have to realize that the likelihood of crime is real and these kids will be the source. They are so convinced of their view that they don't even see how racist they are.

At the second meeting a few days later, called by one of the neighborhood churches (white), many of the same people showed up. However, this time there were more black people in the room (the district superintendent, some of his staff, and some advocates from parent organizations). There was no mention of race at this meeting. There was no hint of panic. I believe it was because there was a tipping point and it wasn't "safe" for the whites to be openly derogatory. Or maybe they had just thought things through over the last couple of days.

What is clear is that there has been precious little conversation about the increase in students at Southwest High outside of a few gatherings of neighbors where their wildest ideas seem to catch on. Kudos to the church for taking this on and providing a grounded forum in which to speak. My concern, however, is that the fear was merely masked and not addressed. White people that don't even see that they are racist may in fact be racist out of fear of otherness. These people don't spend any time around people who don't look like them, who don't have the same lifestyle that they do, and that may behave differently from them. That lack of awareness yields fear.

Communication can create awareness and extinguish fear. Some of the ideas raised are to have the neighbors be mentors and tutors at the school, be a booster club, host a welcoming event on the first day of school complete with gift bags, and so forth. Exposure to these students is key and conversation is essential. Fear will dissipate for many and perhaps some real acceptance will be forthcoming. Here's hoping.