A pilot program for middle school students in Roanoke and Petersburg aims to curb teen gun violence. The initiative follows a particularly deadly year in Roanoke despite ongoing efforts among city government, the school system and community groups to reduce violence.
Community Builders would provide summer and after-school programming for up to 100 rising eighth graders in each of the pilot school divisions.
Programming would include community speakers, college tours, job shadowing and career exploration. Students would also take part in athletic and performing arts activities.
“During summer months, when school is out and opportunities for engagement are limited, gun-related incidents often increase,” Verletta White, superintendent of Roanoke City Public Schools, told legislators when the bill was introduced in January. “This alarming trend underscores the urgent need for effective interventions that address root causes of teen gun violence in many of our urban cities.”
A bill passed in the General Assembly session would fund the program for a two-year test run. Del. Sam Rasoul, D-Roanoke and the chair of the House Education Committee, sponsored the measure in the House of Delegates. Sen. Lashrecse Aird, D-Petersburg, introduced it on the Senate side.
It awaits a signature from Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
Roanoke has struggled to curb gun violence in recent years. The city saw 31 reported homicides in 2023, compared to 19 in 2022, according to a January report by police Chief Scott Booth to the Roanoke City Council.
The city’s Gun Violence Prevention Commission, established in 2021, has faced criticism over its effectiveness. And a city council decision to extend a youth curfew last summer had no effect on the juvenile crime rate.
In October, a student at Grandin Court Elementary School allegedly threatened to kill students, teachers and police in a student text message group, and reportedly shared photos of knives and a gun in that chat.
And the entire school system closed for two days in February during an investigation of threats made against Patrick Henry High School.
Rasoul said he challenged Roanoke City Public Schools last summer to develop school-based youth programming focusing on reducing gun, gang and domestic violence, and school division staff worked throughout the fall semester to develop the pilot curriculum.
The bill allocates $800,000 for the two school divisions over the biennium.
In Roanoke, much of the funding would go toward staffing the program, which would kick off with five weeks of half-day programming over the summer in conjunction with half-day summer school, White said in an interview. Other costs include transportation, field trips, food and guest speakers.
For the past two years, Roanoke has operated the Staying Safe By Staying Connected summer program to provide arts and athletics enrichment camps for middle school students. The new pilot can expand upon those efforts to engage with students before they transition to high school, White said.
“This does target the middle-school level, because when you ask high school students, ‘When did things start to go wrong?’ many times they will point to the middle school level — ‘That’s when you should have talked to me,’” White said in her Senate committee comments in January. “We want to target our rising eighth graders and show them not only the detrimental effects of violence on a community, but their responsibility and how they can be calm community builders instead.”
Rasoul said that as the Community Builders proposal moved through the House and the Senate, several lawmakers expressed interest in their districts being a part of an eventual expansion of the pilot.
Teachers would recommend students for Community Builders in Roanoke, and interested families could opt in to be considered to participate. White said student attendance, academic achievement and discipline would be monitored.
“We want them to lean on each other,” she said. “Many times students will listen to other students, encourage and motivate one another, and provide peer pressure in a good way.” Continuing programming throughout the school year would allow the cohort to continue to create bonds beyond the summer block of programming.
Monica Hutchinson, policy director of Chesterfield-based juvenile justice reform advocacy group Rise For Youth, praised the pilot for providing opportunities for youth to engage with their peers from across the city.
“Knowing young people are receiving services and support and after-school programming is huge,” Hutchinson said.
She said young people are most vulnerable to negative peer pressure and outside influences between the end of the school day and when parents return home.
Through a youth listening tour that launched with an event for Roanoke students last year, mental health and a desire for help with resolving conflicts came up often. They also expressed a desire for positive and safe places to spend time outside of school.
Engaging with students and including them in community discussions can prevent violence, Hutchinson said. “You can’t just focus on when a gun gets to the school building,” she said. Rather, it’s important to focus on preventing the incidents that can eventually lead to a gun being brought to school, such as bullying.
Roanoke will have about 1,000 rising eighth graders this summer out of a total 13,700 students. Petersburg City Public Schools is much smaller, with roughly 300 rising eighth graders among a total of about 4,200 students. Roanoke has five middle schools and two high schools, while Petersburg has just one middle school and one high school.
A 10-year-old was killed there last summer when a bullet was fired into the home where he was watching TV with a friend. Superintendent Tamara Sterling said in a January Senate committee meeting that the death of the student in her division made this pilot especially timely.