Alaina Bookman reports for the “Beyond the Violence” collaborative, a partnership between AL.com, The Birmingham Times and CBS42. Support her work here.
Martez Sanders, an eighth grader at Bessemer City School, said he remembers crying after the shooting death of his uncle in 2023, which still affects his family a year later.
On Wednesday, he signed a pledge: I will never bring a gun to school. I will never use a gun to settle a personal problem or dispute. I will use my influence with my friends to keep them from using guns to settle disputes.
Students across the nation committed to stopping gun violence on the National Day of Concern, which acknowledges the role that young people can play in curbing violence. As gun violence grows across the state and in the Birmingham metro, firearms remain the leading cause of death for Alabama children and teens. And many young adults are impacted by the death and injury of people they love.
“I know what it is like to go through something like that and I know how heartbreaking it can be,” Sanders said.
Sanders was among other Bessemer City Middle School who found seats on the purple bleachers at the school gym Wednesday and listened silently, intently, to advocate Jessica Barnes-Brown as she shared the story of losing her son, Censere, an 18-year-old fun, loving football player to gun violence in 2018.
Multiple students raised their hands when asked if they had lost a loved one to gun violence. Even when they are not victims themselves, children are still impacted by gun violence everyday.
This year, Jefferson County has recorded 164 homicides. There have been 130 homicides in Birmingham city limits so far, including nine justifiable deaths. Of the people killed, eight were children, with the youngest being 5-year-old Landyn Brooks. The other seven children’s names are, Aston Starkey, 13, Markell Sanders, 15; Prentice Lovell Little, 15; Cornelia Rose Lathan, 15; Jaylin Lee Jenkins, 16; Jaquavius James Weston, 18; and Jonathan O’Dell Thomas Jr., 18. Many children also have been injured in shootings.
“I feel bad for the people that lose kids like that because that’s a pain that nobody should go through,” Ale Rodas, a Bessemer City eighth grader, said.
Talyn Griglen, a Bessemer City eighth grader, said she often watches the evening news with her mother, who is a teacher at the middle school, and watches her reaction as another one of her former students dies from gun violence.
“Sometimes she turns on the news and then she sees one of her former students has been shot and killed,” Griglen said.
She said it was difficult to listen to Barnes-Brown speak about the death of her child, as she imagined her own mother in a similar position.
“If you know your friends are in an altercation or dispute, try to encourage them not to use a gun. Try to find alternate ways to solve disputes, because once a life is taken, you can’t get it back, and not only is that person affected, but everybody that ever came in contact with that person is affected,” Barnes-Brown said. “I want you to know that you all can make a difference.”
The rest of the pledge reads: My individual choices and actions, when multiplied by those of young people throughout the country, will make a difference. Together, by honoring this pledge we can reverse the violence and grow up in safety.
Alongside Barnes-Brown, Bessemer District Attorney Lynneice Washington talked to the students about the reality of gun violence, prison and death. Think twice before picking up a gun, she said.
“You have the power to make the right choice,” Washington said.
