In addition to a comprehensive approach, what can the government do to specifically address school violence and gangs?
JACKSON: For one, the government in Little Rock in 1957 intervened in the face of the threat of violence and provided safe passage to school. ESSENCE.COM: So, you mean children in Chicago should be escorted to school by the National Guard, like in 1957 Little Rock? JACKSON: I don’t know what intervention will be required. It may be along the corridors that people walk; it may be intervening into the forces that have the weaponry. The government must determine that. My point is that, by law there is an obligation to provide children safe passage to school, at school and from school, and no stone should go unturned to enforce the law. But we cannot be dismissive of the simultaneous force of poverty. We need to look at urban violence in its totality–not just salvage the students, as their parents’ homes are in foreclosure and they’re losing their jobs. We need to have a plan that is comprehensive.
