Mississippi Today
JSU students call for accountability after on-campus shooting shakes sense of security
U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Jackson State University alumnus, said on Monday the proliferation of gun ownership and its resulting violence in America contributed to the fatal shooting of a student over the weekend at an on-campus apartment complex.
โI’m not certain that in the greatest democracy, in America, that we just ought to walk around with guns on our hip just because some folks said we can do it,โ Thompson said at a forum on politics and voting rights at Jackson State’s College of Business. โIn a civilized society, I’m convinced we can do better.โ
The shooting that killed Jaylen Burns, a senior industrial technology major from Chicago, prompted the university to cancel classes Monday and is still under investigation. It came on the tailend of a homecoming weekend where the university had increased security in an effort to address repeated concerns from students and faculty about safety at the historically Black university in Mississippi’s capital city.
โThis loss is devastating and unfathomable to the JSU community, it does not represent who we are,โ Elayne Hayes-Anthony, the temporary acting president, said in a statement Tuesday. โIt further undercuts our mission to cultivate an environment where students come to love and to evolve as individual and free thinkers.โ
Burns’ killing is the most recent incident that has led to calls for improving campus security at Jackson State. Last year, on Feb. 1, the first day of Black History Month, the university was one of several HBCUs across the country and in Mississippi to receive bomb threats. In December, a deceased student who had been shot was found on campus, according to multiple reports.ย ย
Since Hayes-Anthony became temporary acting president, the university has been working on fencing the campus off from its surrounding community just west of downtown Jackson, a request that several students and faculty made during a listening session earlier this year.
โIt’s not necessarily Jackson State that’s unsafe,โ said Elijah Karriem, a senior journalism and media studies major who is the president of the Jackson State NAACP chapter. โIt’s the city that we’re living in. Jackson State is collateral damage.โ
At the same time, there is more the university could be doing, Karriem said, adding โwe have to have security in our security.โ
โThis wasn’t during homecoming, this was after homecoming,โ he said. โWhen all your alumni, family and friends went away and went back home, where were the security measures then?โ
Karriem lives at University Pointe Apartment Complex where Burns was shot. Last year, he said his roommate was held at gunpoint and his car was stolen. Even though University Pointe has a security box, Karriem said he doesn’t see guards staffing it.
The on-campus police can take longer than they should to respond, Karriem said, despite new golf-cart-type vehicles.
But it’s not just about the university, Karriem said. Individual students, faculty and the Jackson State community also have to grapple with what they could do in their daily lives to address gun violence. Tonight, the NAACP chapter is holding a town hall to give students the space to do that.
โWe all have to take accountability for what has transpired,โ Karriem said. โWe cannot solely blame the university for the lack of security. When it comes down to it, you can get mad, you can do all you want to do, but we have to stop this.โ
He knew Burns โ they had taken a journalism class together a few years ago. Whenever they saw each other on campus, Karriem said they would stop and say hello.
Thompson said that on the federal level, the Biden administration has made several grants available to help HBCUs improve security, which he said Jackson State has applied for.
โI’m not certain there’ll ever be enough money to guarantee anybody that something won’t happen,โ he said.
Political reporter Taylor Vance contributed to this report.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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Mississippi Today
On this day in 1870
Oct. 30, 1870
Three Black men challenged the racist system of segregation in Louisville, Kentucky. They paid their fares and sat up front on a trolley โ only to be challenged by the driver and a white passenger.
Robert Fox, an elderly mortician, said he and his business partners had the same right to ride as whites. The driver alerted his central office, and soon a group of white drivers dragged them off the trolley, kicking them and shouting racial slurs. Police arrested the trio, whose lawyer argued that their disorderly conduct arrests had taken place because of their race.
โThey are good citizens,โ their lawyer said, โand they ask for simple justice and nothing more.โ
The judge fined the trio $5, and Black passengers boycotted the trolley. Fox sued the Central Passenger Railroad Company, which ruled in his favor and awarded him $15. Inspired by the victory, Black passengers began staging โride-insโ across the city. The protests led to clashes on the city streets, and Louisville’s mayor intervened. Streetcar companies agreed to desegregate the trolleys, and the Black citizens rejoiced. They had really won.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Will Mississippi schools join the cellphone ban bandwagon?
Many state lawmakers want to take action on teen mental health and say they believe restricting cellphone use in schools is a solution. But opinions and research on the topic are mixed.
Among those who oppose a full ban: Two high school students from opposite ends of the state.
Kate Riddle, a senior from Lafayette County School District, told Mississippi Today that her social media experience has always been โpositive and uplifting.โ
โSocial media can be a positive or negative tool; it just depends on how you use it,โ she said.
Riddle said she uses it for communication, news and entertainment.
Crosby Parker, a junior from the Gulfport School District, also said social media hasn’t had a โtangible impactโ on his mental health and that he uses it on a โneed-to basisโ to talk to friends.
Neither supports a full cellphone ban. But Riddle acknowledged that โphones are an immense problem in school districts and finding a way to navigate the challenges that they will bring in the coming years is vital to the success of all,โ
Riddle supports a phone ban for elementary school students, but not necessarily for older students. She suggested schools restrict cellphone use without banning phones entirely, such as taking them up before class.
Parker supports his school’s current policy, where students can use their phones anywhere except during class.
โThis allows students to stay in communication with their family throughout the day, and it limits the phones to any time that doesn’t distract others from learning,โ he said.
Earlier this month, the state youth mental health task force released their recommendations. Among them was that all school districts implement policies on cellphones and social media use in classrooms.
At the same time, Rep. Sam Creekmore, R-New Albany, a task force member, is drafting a bill to ban cellphones in schools statewide with possibly leaving it up to each of the state’s 144 school districts to determine how to do that..
โAs we recognize the importance of technology, we also have to recognize the importance of our children’s health, which includes mental health,โ he said.
Cellphones are ubiquitous in American culture. Pew Research Center found that 95% of American teenagers between 13 and 17 have a smartphone and 23% reported using social media for four or more hours a day.
Many educators, parents and researchers fear phones are driving the nation’s youth mental health crisis with 72% of high school teachers telling the Pew Research Center in June that they think cellphones are a major problem in classrooms.
Jonathan Haidt’s โThe Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illnessโ describes how teen mental health has declined sharply since 2010. In 2020, teen suicide rates increased 91% for boys and 167% for girls. The percent of teens who reported having at least one episode of major depression increased 145% for girls and 161% for boys. Haidt and many other researchers attribute this decline to the rise of social media and cellphone use.
Last year, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy released a report warning about how social media harms teen mental health, citing statistics that 46% of teens said social media makes them feel worse about their body image and 64% said they were โoftenโ or โsometimesโ exposed to hate content.
Creekmore said Haidt’s book and the surgeon general’s report are major influences for his bill.
According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted Sept. 30-Oct. 6, 68% of American adults support banning cellphones from middle and high school classrooms. Eight states have passed bans and/or restrictions on cellphones in schools so far.
In Mississippi this year, Marshall County School District and Greenwood School District introduced bans on cellphone use during school hours.
โVast research connects the decline in mental health among children and adolescents in part to the near constant use of smartphones and social media,โ Lt Gov Delbert Hosemann said in a statement to Mississippi Today.
Touching on the concerns about school safety in the wake of multiple school shootings, he said, โSchool safety and ensuring parents can stay connected with their children are also important concerns. We are confident local districts can negotiate these competing concerns and implement policies protecting instructional time from distraction.โ
Cellphone bans have their drawbacks. They can be difficult to enforce, and some parents want to be able to reach their children for pick-ups and emergencies. However, the National School Safety and Security Services says that using a phone during an emergency can actually cause more trouble by distracting people, overloading cellphone systems, disrupting evacuation efforts and more.
The research on cellphone use and its impact on teens is more mixed. There are several places where the research is lacking, including what types of content cause the most harm and how exactly social media creates/exacerbates mental health problems.
The National Academy of Sciences‘ report on the topic pointed out the positives to using social media, such as communication, learning and connection. The surgeon general’s report also found that 58% of teens said that social media made them feel more accepted.
Lynda Stewart, a mental health counselor and director of the Division of Children and Youth Services at Mississippi’s Department of Mental Health, is also part of the state task force. While she said she has no opinion on cellphone bans, she pointed out that they’re not the only factors harming youth mental health.
โAdolescence is a very, very difficult time. It’s a time when children are growing and changing,โ she said.
Stewart cited the pandemic and academic and social pressures as major problems. Young people are also more aware about mental health and are less afraid to reach out for help than previous generations.
โOne thing we know about our youth today is that they’re strong and they’re brave,โ she said, โand they’re more willing than any other generation of youth to let somebody know when they’re not okay.โ
The task force made several recommendations, including more schools partnering with community health centers, more mental health professionals on school staff and universal mental health screenings for students.
Stewart advised parents to check in with their kids daily and look out for behavioral red flags. This includes them always being alone, dropping hobbies they used to love, getting bad grades, and drastic changes in their style and friend groups.
Mental Health Mississippi provides information on mental health providers in the state. For mental health crises, dial the national suicide and crisis line at 988. You can also dial the DMH helpline at 1-877-210-8513 for help and information about mental health services.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1869
Oct. 29, 1869
Klansmen kidnapped and savagely beat Georgia legislator Abram Colby, leaving him for dead.
Freed 15 years before emancipation, he became an early organizer of Black Americans. A Radical Republican, he represented Greene County in 1865 at a convention for freed African Americans and was elected to the Georgia Legislature a year later.
In 1869, the Ku Klux Klan offered him a $7,500 bribe to not run for re-election, but he refused. โI told them that I would not do it if they would give me all the county was worth,โ he recalled.
These Klansmen were hardly impoverished white men, he said. โSome are first-class men in our town. One is a lawyer, one a doctor, and some are farmers.โ
During his whipping, they asked him, โDo you think you will ever vote another damned Radical ticket?โ When he answered yes, the beating became even more severe.
โThey set in and whipped me a thousand licks more, with sticks and straps that had buckles on the ends of them,โ he recalled. Although he survived, he was unable to work or hold office. Three years later, he testified before a joint House and Senate committee investigating reports of Southern violence, detailing what had happened.
โThe worst thing was my mother, wife and daughter were in the room when they came,โ he recalled. โMy little daughter begged them not to carry me away. They drew up a gun and actually frightened her to death. She never got over it until she died. That was the part that grieves me the most.โ
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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