Students hope to show Lansing the real faces of Benton Harbor
6 from high school, 11 from middle school to meet with legislators
by JULIE SWIDWA
The Herald Palladium
May 16, 2004
BENTON HARBOR – Kevin Davis knows Benton Harbor once flourished. He believes that, even now, there's a tremendous amount of untapped potential in his city.
“When you come to Benton Harbor, you see abandoned buildings, rundown houses and unemployed citizens. But there are extreme amounts of talent and good in this city. That is overlooked because we're viewed as ignorant fools who riot and strike up controversy,” Kevin said.
He and some of his classmates at Benton Harbor High School want that to change. That's why six of them are making a trip to Lansing on Wednesday to talk to state legislators.
Quwanetta Anthony, Darius Robinson, Jessica Harris, Natasha Partee and Cherri Collins, along with Kevin, are prepared to tell Michigan lawmakers what they think it will take to steer their city onto the right track. They will be accompanied to Lansing by Benton Harbor High School social studies teacher Shay Briggs and will speak before the Michigan House Civics Commission, a state House committee. Quwanetta is a freshman, and the rest are juniors.
Some students from Louretta Powell's eighth-grade American history class at Hull Middle School also are doing. They are Napoleon Lark, Jermaine Moore, Halisi Ross, Travis Showmaker, Timothy Bullocks, Sharmaine Williams, Fantasy House, David Osby and Tyree London.
“These kids will be putting faces on some of the issues,” Powell said.
Briggs said the students are excited that someone is willing to pay attention to them even though they're not currently in the eye of the storm.
“The kids know that most of the attention Benton Harbor gets follows some type of turmoil, like the riots,” Briggs said. “These kids would rather see the focus on prevention, not reaction.”
"We need something for kids to do here,” said Quwanetta during the Herald-Palladium interview with the students at the high school. “That would keep them out of trouble. Then Benton Harbor can be safer and people will want to come here.”
Jessica said the young people see a city trapped in a circle.
“Everything goes in a big circle. We have a lot of crime because we don't have jobs. We don't have jobs because we have a lot of crime,” she said in explaining her theory.