Saturday's Internet Edition, May 17, 2008.
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A meeting took place last Tuesday in the THS cafeteria. THS Principal Dirk Gurley, as well as assistant principals Deboy Beamon and Clinton Turner, represented the school. Dr. George Jackson, pastor of Citadel of Faith Christian Fellowship, who called the meeting, as well as Apostle James Carter, pastor of Cornerstone Church of Christ, attended. Church elders at the meeting included Ricky Harriott of New Birth Church in Walnut Cove, Reginald Smith of Lexington Christian Fellowship and Tommy Walker, William Goode and Billy Marsh from Citadel of Faith Christian Fellowship.
Tuesday’s meeting was a result of an earlier meeting of church leaders.
“At our monthly meeting of Ministers United for Christ, we came to the conclusion that we needed to interact with the young men — particularly the young black males at Thomasville High School,” Jackson said. “We needed to give more than just lip service to fight the issues that have come to our attention.”
Jackson noted that there has been a variety of issues involving black THS students that cause him, his fellow ministers and the church elders concern.
“One major cause of concern was the increasing amount of gang activity, portrayed by teenagers in the community,” Jackson said. “We’ve also been concerned about some of the arrests that have taken place.”
While some of the young men Jackson is concerned about are overly active in what appears to be illegal activity, he is also concerned about lack of effort by some male teenagers in areas, he feels, they should be concentrating.
“We’re really concerned about the school’s retention rate,” Jackson said. “It has too many dropouts.”
At the meeting Beamon estimated the dropout rate at THS to be about 40 percent. He explained that the figure was based on following a class from the beginning of its freshman year until the end of its senior year. In other words, 40 percent of a class did not drop out the same year. Only 60 percent, however, of a freshman class, at the current rate, actually goes on to graduate.
Jackson, who also chairs the Martin Luther King Jr. Social Action Committee and is old enough to remember the days of Jim Crow, finds the current problems in the black community to be very frustrating.
“So much has been done to ensure their rights and privileges as citizens of this great nation,” Jackson said of the youthful offenders and underachievers whom he was expressing his concerns about. “Too many young people seem to be taking these rights and struggles for granted. We don’t want to turn around and go backwards.”
During the meeting, in which all attendees appeared to be in agreement, some of the reasons for disappointing behavior were discussed. In a lot of cases, the parents of the students were still young themselves. Often the father did not live in the home. Without mentioning any names, the attendees brought up the fact that some of the top athletes, who had played an important role in recent THS state sports championships, had accomplished little once their high school sports career ended. Many of these former heroes are said to be around town and either unemployed or performing menial jobs.
With these problems being discussed, the black ministers expressed interest in initiating a plan for black positive role models to act one-on-one as mentors to a black male high school student.
“We’re very excited that we have some people who are wanting to help our young people by acting as mentors,” Gurley said. “We’re always very open to that. We’re waiting to hear back from them, and hopefully we’ll get this thing rolling.”
Staff Writer Kevin Reid can be reached at 472-9500, ext. 230, or at reid@tvilletimes.com.