Schools are traditionally seen as safe havens in high-crime communities, but just getting to campus is a harrowing experience for many students, according to a series of articles by an Oakland-based online news site that explores the difficulties students in violent areas face outside school walls.
“I keep my mace just in case something happens, like someone tries to come up and do a sneak attack,” Jordan Williams, 15, told Oakland Local for its three-part series on student experiences in East Oakland.
Students tell their first-person stories in the series, and many of them participated as journalists by interviewing their friends and peers. All of the students knew someone who was killed by street violence in Oakland.
Few students walk to school, according to report, preferring instead the relative safety of public buses – but even those systems aren’t safe, students said, describing fights and robberies on the mass transit system. One student said she saw a young man with a gun on her bus, and she had to decide between getting off the bus and being late for an appointment, or continuing on. She stayed on the bus, but moved closer to the bus driver. “My heart was beating really hard,” she said.
Students who do walk keep a watchful eye for possible attackers, and many vary their routes frequently.
For some, the threat of violence is part of their daily routines.
“I just accept the fact and watch my surroundings as I go,” said 16-year-old Marisa Jolivette.
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