EDUCATION PROVIDES ESCAPE FROM VIOLENCE FOR ONE CHICAGO YOUTH

Eric Wilson, stands with the Class of 2020 and as their class president. Photo courtesy of Clark Atlanta University.
Eric Wilson, stands with the Class of 2020 and as their class president. Photo courtesy of Clark Atlanta University.

EDUCATION PROVIDES ESCAPE FROM VIOLENCE FOR ONE CHICAGO YOUTH

By Monique Smith

According to the New York Times and a report published by CNN, in

2016, there were more than 750 shot and killed in Chicago and more than 3,500 people wounded.

The crime rate in Chicago continues to rise and parents live in constant fear when their children walk out the door every morning. The article compared Chicago to other major cities and Chicago had more criminal homicides this year than in New York and

Los Angeles combined, despite having fewer residents than either city. Los Angeles had 288 through mid- December, up slightly from last year, and New York had 325, a decline from 2015. One mother

decided to find safety for her son outside of Chicago.

Veronica Coney sent her son to Clark Atlanta University to save his life. “It was always my plan for Eric to go to college, but it wasn’t my plan for him to go away to school,” said Coney. Eric Wilson,

Coney’s 19 year old son escaped the violence here in Chicago, but not the impact gun violence has on families. When Eric was four years old, his father was shot and killed and most recently in the summer of 2016, just a few months before he departed for Clark Atlanta, Eric’s 15-year-old brother, Davearhea Wilson, was shot

dead on the front steps of his own home. “I always knew that education was going to pull me out of this,” Eric said. “I used the bad things I saw growing up in my neighborhood as motivation to be successful and come back to help my family”.

Coney said, “I wanted him to attend school here in Illinois

because of the money, he had a scholarship at Southern Illinois

University, but he wanted to attend an HBCU.” Coney, who is recovering from a stroke, said financing Eric’s first year was difficult. “I’m not working, I don’t have a dime, but I told him we gone get you there and then you have to make it do what it do.” Eric did just that.

He was elected freshman class president and just ended his

first semester with a 3.2 GPA. When asked about a parents role in combating violence in the city, Coney says that parents must observe their children. “Know where your children are, know who they are with and just be there for them,” she said. “I made Eric

accountable and I gave him my trust and held him accountable

for that trust.”

Unfortunately there are many mothers in Chicago who are working to finance their sons’ funerals and not education. Eddie Johnson, the current Chicago police superintendent, recently spent time at the New York Police Department, studying techniques focused on community policing. He said in a statement that most of

the shootings over Christmas weekend were targeted attacks

by gang members and called on elected officials in Illinois to

pass tougher gun laws.

Coney says, “We need to hold gun manufacturers and sellers accountable. How else are these kids getting hold to some of these guns out here?”

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