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May 21, 2008 6:38 pm US/Eastern
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New Plan Hopes To Cut Violence In Schools
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ―
A call to help cut crime on city school campuses gets an answer from thousands of men.
Gigi Barnett has more.
When the images of a 10th grade student beating her art teacher surfaced on the Internet, it caused a national outcry.
Weeks later, Baltimore school leaders were disturbed again, this time by two 13-year-old boys accused of breaking into Calverton Middle School and trying to rape an assistant principal.
Again, school leaders called for community action.
"How do we as a city become the type of place that works together?" said City Schools CEO Dr. Andres Alonso.
That question was answered Wednesday by police officers, educators and ministers. They're ready to help through an organization called C2A 5000 or Call to Action 5000.
The goal is to get at least 5,000 men in Baltimore to improve their neighborhoods and schools. That means regular visits to classrooms and more face time in schools.
"If it's not about relationships, it's not about anything at all. We have to start building relationships first in our home with our children," said C2A 5000 organizer Alvin Gillard.
The first step is a Father's Day rally at the Baltimore Convention Center.
"You have the event and basically it's rah, rah, rah and everybody gets excited. Everybody goes home and does their things. That's not going to happen this time," said Richard Rowe.
School leaders say there is much work to do.
"It's completely a piece of our vision and what we've been calling for from day one," Dr. Alonso said.
With a growing number of assaults on school campuses, a sky-rocketing dropout rate and lagging test scores, C2A says it needs churches and community groups to step up, too.
"If there's going to be any change, there has to be some movement. If there is going to be some movement, there's going to be some friction. Where there's friction, there's going to be some heat. Where there's heat, there's energy. Where there is energy, there is endless possibilities," said Johnny Golden.
The C2A 5000 Rally is on Father's Day at the Baltimore Convention Center.
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