KIDS DESCRIBE A DRUG-WAR HELL

Fifth-grade essays tell stories of crime, violence

At a time when kids are killing each other, the fifth-graders of Edward
Heston Elementary School have written about how tough it is to survive in
parts of the city.

"Do you know what I hear every night while doing my homework? I hear police
cars and gunshots. Isn't it sad for a 10-year-old child to hear that before
going to bed?" wrote Chevonne Starkey.

"Sometimes when I walk home from school, I see groups of men crowding each
other in a corner. I'll always call on Jesus' name and run with my little
sisters as fast and as far as I can," wrote Natalie Pierre.

"Do you know what I see everyday? Trash, trash and more trash. Isn't this a
bleak picture for an 11-year-old child to see every day? Sometimes the
trash swirls in the wind like a tornado. It seems like the trash just grows
and grows," wrote Courtney Canty.

These essays were part of the West Philadelphia Empowerment Zone and the
Anti-Drug/Anti-Violence Network's Inaugural Speak Out for Peace In the Zone
Program.

Four other city public schools also participated.

The event is aimed at allowing the children "a legitimate forum for
self-expression using the written and spoken word," said Nashid Ali, of the
Health and Human Development Committee of WPEZ.

Yesterday, in an assembly of fifth-graders at the Heston school, several
pupils got up and read their essays. The school is at 54th Street and
Lancaster Avenue in West Philadelphia.

Others performed "The House that Crack Built." They recited a rhyme to the
same beat as "The House that Jack Built."

"These are the tears that fall from the sleep, of the baby with nothing to
eat, whose mother smokes the crack that numbs her brain," they chanted as
they took turns holding up drawings illustrating the story.

Alice Jordan-Hill, the school's conflict-and-resolution specialist, said
many of these kids have no childhood.

"They see a lot and hear a lot," she said.

"For these children walking to school is just as dangerous as walking to
the store."

She said the school is trying to teach them survival skills so that they
won't get into trouble.

And that was the theme of the assembly, which began with Rose Samuels of WPEZ.

She sang about slain rappers Tupac Shakur and Notorius B.I.G, and Latoya
Brown, the 14-year-old girl shot to death in front of an East Germantown
crack house last week.

Then "Cool Mel," a cartoon character from the Anti-Drug/Anti Violence
Networks' Peace Posse Comic strip, performed skits with the kids to show
them how to deal with conflict.

After the assembly, several of the kids talked about how badly they wanted
their neighborhoods to change.

"I'd like there to be no shooting, no drugs and no trash in the playgrounds
in my neighborhood," said Erick Bacon, 11. "I'd like there to be nets on
the basketball rims and seats on the swings."

"I'm mad because I never get to play outside because it's too dangerous,"
said Michele Coker, 10. "But if people just listen to us, things will
change."