bjbj"9"9 JUDY WOODRUFF: Now to our series
on the dropout problem in America.
Personal experiences outside of pure academics
often contribute to whether a student may
leave school.
Tonight, we visit Saint Petersburg, Florida,
where one eighth-grader's enthusiasm for journalism
has helped shine a light on problems in his
school, while at the same time brightening
his future.
Ray Suarez reports for our American Graduate
project.
RAY SUAREZ: This is how 14-year-old De'Qonton
Davis starts every school day in Saint Petersburg,
Fla.
He wakes up early and walks his 12-year-old
sister, Terrijana, six blocks to the bus stop.
To the casual eye, his family's neighborhood
seems pleasant and sunny.
But on closer look, the scars of poverty and
a lingering recession become apparent, high
unemployment, foreclosures and some of the
highest crime rates in the city.
Last month, De'Qonton says he began making
it a point to walk with his sister, after
a man she didn't know repeatedly tried to
get her into his car.
Terrijana refused and got away unharmed.
DE'QONTON DAVIS, student, John Hopkins Middle
School: I always was raised in the hood, never
in a quiet place.
We always had violence, trouble, something
always going wrong, because you got loud music,
loud people, drinking, smoking, drugs.
Everything in that one little neighborhood,
it turns the whole neighborhood into a bad
zone.
RAY SUAREZ: The family lives in an area of
Saint Petersburg known as Midtown, a predominately
African-American section of the city that
was at one time largely segregated.
De'Qonton believes Midtown's problems have
had a profound effect on many students growing
up in the neighborhood.
And two years ago, he noticed a trend of violence
starting on social media websites and spreading
to his classrooms here at John Hopkins middle
school.
QONTON DAVIS: My sixth grade year, we had
100-and-something arrests.
And most of the time, they're fights with
some gangs and stuff that happened at home
from Facebook and Twitter and all that stuff
from home.
And they came into the school.
And we had police every day at the school.
And I really didn't like that.
RAY SUAREZ: What the violence did was spark
an idea for De'Qonton.
He hoped to shine a light on the roots of
the fighting and why it was happening at John
Hopkins.
De'Qonton led a team of his classmates in
producing a video for the PBS NewsHour Reporting
Labs, which showcases student journalism across
the nation.
QONTON DAVIS: They put us in groups.
I got the people who got good grades and good
stuff that they do journalism.
And they was talking about gangs, drugs and
fights, and that's -- how that's making a
bad influence on our school.
I said the gangs, everybody, don't be the
drugs and the gangs and the bullying and stuff.
It might happen at home.
Something that happened at home, from their
anger and frustration, they bring it in school
and the only way to take it out is to fight
or to yell at the teachers or do something
bad.
RAY SUAREZ: The students questioned other
students.
STUDENT: I honestly didn't really care.
I just wanted to keep fighting, because it's
in my blood.
RAY SUAREZ: Teachers.
CLAIRE LYNCH, teacher: Asian gangs, neighborhood
gangs, I have been here through all of it.
When you have a disagreement in the neighborhood,
the easiest place to find the person is at
school, because you all go to school together.
RAY SUAREZ: And even administrators and the
campus police in search of answers as to what
was causing the dramatic number of arrests
and assaults at John Hopkins.
The end result was a striking six-and-half-minute
report titled "Fighting Chance," a deeply
honest look at the problems inside the school.
QONTON DAVIS: In 2010, a police officer was
shot and killed in the neighborhood.
While police searched for the suspect, John
Hopkins was closed for the day, and students
had to go to another school.
After a day of searching, 16 year-old Nicholas
Lindsey was caught and charged with the officer's
murder.
Lindsey is a former student at John Hopkins
Middle School.
RAY SUAREZ: The video was produced as part
of a communications magnet program in the
Pinellas County School District known as Journeys
in Journalism.
The program places professional journalists
in three Saint Petersburg Title I schools,
including De'Qonton's.
CYNDA MORT, program coordinator, Journeys
in Journalism: There was never a doubt in
De'Qonton's mind that he wanted to do this
story.
RAY SUAREZ: Journeys in Journalism coordinator
Cynda Mort says De'Qonton and his classmates
took on a complex and sensitive issue that
adults have been trying to deal with for years.
QONTON DAVIS: According to John Hopkins staff,
middle school is an important time in a student's
development to identify causes of violence
and begin prevention strategies.
RAY SUAREZ: Mort says the video is exactly
the type of work she hoped would be created
when the program was launched 10 years ago.
Her goal was to teach students as young as
kindergartners.
. . STUDENT: I am a reporter for the Manatee
Messenger.
May I please ask you a question.
RAY SUAREZ: . . . all the way through high
school, the fundamentals of newsgathering.
CYNDA MORT: There wasn't any journalism program
that was trying to reach students in K-5 anywhere
across the country.
So we decided that it was curiosity, observation,
accuracy and fairness.
And if we could remain to those four core
concepts and try the figure out how to connect
those concepts on a level that even a kindergartner
would begin to understand.
RAY SUAREZ: De'Qonton joined the program following
elementary school and his teachers said he
showed an immediate knack for photography.
De'Qonton's mother, La'Qonya Stewart, says
that journalism has been a blessing for the
family and that it has helped her son become
more outgoing.
But she says she wasn't expecting him to produce
such a well-thought-out video on the violence
at school.
LA'QONYA STEWART, mother of De'Qonton Davis:
That was kind of a shocker, because that's
not a conversation that most teenagers as
boys talk about or say that, wait, this is
not the problem.
It starts before then.
RAY SUAREZ: And the surprise didn't stop there.
When the video was being made, John Hopkins
principal Barry Brown was one of the first
subjects interviewed.
He says his middle schoolers have been so
professional, he first thought adults were
doing most of the work.
BARRY BROWN, principal, John Hopkins Middle
School: I think my first take, I made them
stop.
My first interview, I had some kids come in
and they -- I mean I had to pull data.
I had to -- "Guys, you got to -- who wrote
these questions?"
And they were looking at each other like -- and
one of the kids was like, "I did."
RAY SUAREZ: In fact, that was eighth-grader
and lead reporter Alexus Barnhart grilling
principal Brown.
ALEXUS BARNHART, student, John Hopkins Middle
School: We need to come up with hardcore questions
that get us the answers that we need for the
project.
You have to show them that you are actually
serious, and then they can actually hold a
conversation with you.
RAY SUAREZ: While Brown admits being nervous
about how the video would reflect on his school,
he says the journalism program has been great
for both students and faculty at John Hopkins,
where violence and fighting have declined
in the last two years.
BARRY BROWN: How often does a middle school
kid get a chance to come in with his own list
of questions that they developed themselves
and question a principal, and that principal
is going to have to give them some answer?
I have seen kids that are in the hallway ripping,
running and being our typical middle school
kid and come in here and, "Yes, sir, no, sir,"
setting up shop.
"Thank you for your time," taking notes.
So I think it definitely establishes some
professionalism for the kids.
RAY SUAREZ: For De'Qonton, who wants be a
firefighter and a photographer when he grows
up, journalism has given him a reason to stay
in school.
QONTON DAVIS: If I didn't have a camera, I
would probably be led up with the wrong people
and doing the wrong stuff.
And I wouldn't probably make it to college.
RAY SUAREZ: And as for his video, which drew
attention from local media outlets and is
now gaining national exposure, De'Qonton says
there is one person in particular he's hoping
will watch it.
QONTON DAVIS: I want the president to see
what I could do and see what -- what young
kids can do, young black American kids.
And I want them to know that somebody out
there is trying to learn and trying to get
their education right and be a good adult
dad in a community when he grows up.
RAY SUAREZ: De'Qonton and his fellow journalists
in Saint Petersburg are now working on a video
examining the lack of male influence in the
lives of some of their classmates.
JUDY WOODRUFF: We have more online from our
series, including a look at a day in the life
of a first-grade journalist.
American Graduate is a public media initiative
funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
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